Luke Littler needed just 10 minutes to breeze into the second round of the Winmau World Masters on a night on which Jonny Clayton dazzled, Michael van Gerwen displayed a new look and Chris Dobey, Dave Chisnall and Gary Anderson were beaten.

Reigning PDC world champion Littler dropped just one leg as he swept 2023 WDF world champion Andy Baetens 3-0 to set up a last-16 clash with James Wade on Saturday after the latter defeated Mike De Decker 3-2 in a hard-fought opening game of the evening.

Littler was superb on his doubles at the start of his clash with Baetens, hitting his first four attempts before ending with a success rate of six from nine on the outer ring.

Nathan Aspinall also impressed, pinning six doubles out of eight and a tremendous 161 finish on the bull while sweeping Andrew Gilding 3-0 to secure a showdown with Chisnall’s conqueror Cameron Menzies, who beat his out-of-sorts opponent 3-1.

But the performance of the evening came from Clayton, who averaged 112.77 en route to defeating Martin Schindler 3-1 in a high-quality affair, earning one win for Wales after the nation’s ruby union side were trounced 43-0 by France in the Six Nations.

Clayton will take on Ryan Searle in the next round after Heavy Metal saw off world No 10 Chris Dobey 3-1, breaking Hollywood twice in the fourth set after the first nine legs in the match had all gone to the player throwing first.

Van Gerwen, meanwhile, recovered from missing a glut of darts to win the second set against qualifier Bradley Brooks by taking the next two to triumph 3-1 – while wearing a black and gold shirt as opposed to his customary green.

The Dutchman, beaten by Littler in the World Championship final a few weeks ago, wore a different-coloured top to mark five years with his sponsor.

Van Gerwen will take on Dimitri Van den Bergh next after the latter rebounded from losing the first set to Anderson – in which he bust his score in the opening leg – to win six legs in a row and prevail 3-1.

Van den Bergh reeled off four 14-darters on the trot before closing out the match with a 13-darter.

Friday’s World Masters results

• James Wade 3-2 Mike De Decker
• Dave Chisnall 1-3 Cameron Menzies
• Jonny Clayton 3-1 Martin Schindler
• Nathan Aspinall 3-0 Andrew Gilding
• Chris Dobey 1-3 Ryan Searle
• Luke Littler 3-0 Andy Baetens
• Michael van Gerwen 3-1 Bradley Brooks
• Gary Anderson 1-3 Dimitri Van den Bergh

Saturday’s last-16 fixtures (best of seven sets)

Afternoon session (from 12.45pm)

• William O’Connor vs Danny Noppert
• Damon Heta vs Gerwyn Price
• Stephen Bunting vs Peter Wright
• Luke Humphries vs Josh Rock

Evening session (from 7pm)

• Luke Littler vs James Wade
• Jonny Clayton vs Ryan Searle
• Michael van Gerwen vs Dimitri Van den Bergh
• Cameron Menzies vs Nathan Aspinall

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