World Darts Championship LIVE: Littler faces Cross for place in quarter-finals

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World Darts Championship LIVE
World Darts Championship LIVEPDC

Defending champion Luke Littler faces former winner Rob Cross as the last 16 gets up and running at the PDC World Darts Championship on Monday night - follow all the action live from Alexandra Palace with Flashscore.

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19:47 GMT - Rock 2-1 Rydz

Rock is averaging 97.39 going into the third set, while Rydz is hovering around 93.

Rock has the darts to start the set. He hits the eighth maximum of the match to leave 36 after nine darts. He misses all three at it, though, but Rydz misses the bullseye to take out 132. Rock mops up to take the first leg.

Another 180 for Rock, who looks in the groove, and he takes out 86 on the bull to take a significant advantage in the set.

The third set goes to Rock as he checks out in 15 darts. He averaged just shy of 110 in that set, yikes.

 

19:39 GMT - Rock 1-1 Rydz

Rydz comfortably holds throw to open the second set. 

Rock has the opportunity to bounce back with a 12-darter, but eventually mops up double 16 with his 15th. The Northern Irishman then hits seven perfect darts to set up the nine, but narrowly wires a treble 20 before leaving 48, which goes out for an 11-dart leg.

With darts in hand for the set, another 180 follows. Rydz responds in kind and hits another to set up a nine of his own. With 141 on the board, Rydz wires the eighth dart but unbelievably leaves two remaining on the board, which he manages to pin first time for a ridiculous 10-dart leg, sending the set to a decider.

Rock has upped his average from 86.58 in the first set to around 105 here, but it's Rydz with the darts. Still, Rock races to leave 48 after 12 darts, taking out 16, double 16 to level the scores with a break of throw.

19:27 GMT - Rock 0-1 Rydz

Rock has the first throw and chances to assert early control, twice threatening ton-plus finishes, including a visit that left 158. 

Missed darts at double one open the door, and Rydz steadies enough to pinch the leg on double 10.

Rydz pulls clear with superior scoring, only to wobble on the doubles from 78. Rock failed to punish on tops from 71 and Rydz escaped again, this time pinning double 6 to move two legs clear.

Rock finally finds rhythm in the third leg, landing a maximum and backing it up with a 105 to apply proper pressure. He can't convert 120, but crucially returns to tidy up on tops from 60, keeping the set alive.

A pair of 140s put him firmly ahead before a miss at double 19 briefly threatens to prolong matters. He returns to pin double 8 and seals the set, pausing to look skyward.

19:15 GMT - The players are on their way!

18:57 GMT - Before all that, though, we have the last match of round three between 11th-ranked Josh Rock and Callan Rydz.

Rock's one of the favourites for the competition, but Rydz is no stranger to a deep run, twice reaching the quarter-finals at Ally Pally - including last year, when he was finally beaten by eventual runner-up Michael van Gerwen.

They're scheduled to start at 19:15 GMT.

18:31 GMT - James Hurrell produced one of the shocks of the World Championship so far by knocking out world number four Stephen Bunting in a pulsating seven-set battle, prevailing 4-3 after outlasting the highest seed to fall at Alexandra Palace so far on Saturday.

He now has a huge opportunity to continue the fairytale story and reach the quarter-finals at the expense of world number 20 Ryan Searle, who beat Martin Schindler 4-0 on Sunday.

The winner will face either Jonny Clayton or Andreas Harrysson.

18:09 GMT - Luke Littler is yet to drop a set so far at this year's World Championship - could 2018 champion Rob Cross give The Nuke something to think about tonight?

Their head-to-head record would strongly favour Littler in this one; he's won 13 of the last 16 meetings between the pair:

H2H
H2HFlashscore

18:00 GMT - In case you missed it, in the afternoon session Kevin Doets rallied past 15th seed Nathan Aspinall 4-3 to roar into the last 16 of the PDC World Darts Championship.

The Dutchman ignited at the end of an undulating tie in London, rattling off three ton-plus finishes in the final six legs of the clash, which went all the way to a deciding set.

"That was insane!" Doets told Sky Sports. "I started off rough. I was lucky to be 2-2, but then I should have been 3-2 up. He hit the 170 to go 3-2 up, but after that I was just on fire, I couldn't miss any more.

"This is what you dream of. This is my second year in a row in the last 16 and I want to go even further."

Elsewhere, Charlie Manby battled some finishing trouble to beat a wilting Ricky Evans 4-2 and set up a fourth-round clash with 10th seed Gian van Veen, and debutant Justin Hood continued his impressive run with a 4-1 win over Ryan Meikle.

Read more: Doets ignites to dump out dejected Aspinall from World Darts Championship

17:59 GMT - Welcome to Flashscore's Darts Tracker!

We'll be across all the action at Alexandra Palace tonight as we head into the business end of the PDC World Darts Championship this evening.

We also have one final match from the third round:

Josh Rock v Callan Rydz (round three)

James Hurrell v Ryan Searle (round four)

Luke Littler v Rob Cross (round four)