Luke Littler eases past Damon Heta to reach third round of the Austrian Open

Littler threw four 180’s and checked out a match-high of 126 on his way to victory with an average of 106, which set up a third-round tie with Krzysztof Ratajski.

“In the first few legs me and Damon weren’t at our best, but I managed to switch on,” reflected Littler, a winner at the Belgian Darts Open in March.

“I’m really happy with the way I played in those last four legs. When you find it, you just find it, and hopefully I can play like that tomorrow.”

Michael van Gerwen battered his way through to the next round with a commanding 6-1 victory against Jeffrey de Zwaan, while fellow Premier League player Peter Wright earned a 6-5 victory to stop a spirited fightback from Danny Lauby.

Ross Smith averaged 105.96 average and wrapped up a 6-5 triumph over Raymond van Barneveld, taking the deciding leg with a 12-darter to see him through to the final day and Josh Rock was another one to come through an 11-leg thriller against Dimitri van den Bergh.

Martin Schindler cruised to a crushing 6-0 whitewash over Ricardo Pietreczko with an average of over 101 and fellow German Daniel Klose dispatched Andrew Gilding with a 6-2 scoreline.

Top seed Dave Chisnall dumped out Brendan Dolan with a 6-4 success, reeling off three straight legs to progress into the third round.

Rob Cross was one of three seeds to head out in the afternoon session as Daryl Gurney finished the match in style to take out 103 and seal 6-4 win.

Stephen Bunting pinned two 170 checkouts during his deciding-leg victory over Richard Veenstra and Ritchie Edhouse made light work of Dirk van Duijvenbode with a 6-2 win and an average of 103.

Joe Cullen also landed a 170 checkout on his way to 6-3 win over Darius Labanauskas, while Gian van Veen came out on top in the deciding leg against ninth seed Ryan Searle to book his place in the last 16.

Ratajski ended a run of four straight defeats on the European Tour with a 6-2 win over Dom Taylor and Dutchman Danny Noppert earned a 6-2 victory against compatriot Wessel Nijman to set up a last-16 tie with Rock.