Michael van Gerwen overcame Beau Greaves in a thriller as reigning champion Luke Littler opened his Grand Slam of Darts title defence with a victory.

Three-time world champion Van Gerwen appeared to be cruising to a win at 4-2 in Wolverhampton, just for 21-year-old Greaves to win back-to-back legs to take the match to a decider.

Doncaster’s Greaves had three darts to take out 52 for victory however couldn’t end, earlier than Van Gerwen noticed out the match.

Greaves, who beat Littler in October to turn out to be the primary girl to succeed in the World Youth Championship remaining, should now beat former champion Gary Anderson on Sunday to remain within the competitors.

It was smoother crusing for Littler, 18, as he continued his 100% document on the event with a 5-1 win towards Karel Sedlacek.

The world quantity two, a winner on his debut in 2024, was pissed off by dropping a single leg.

“I used to be clearly in search of the whitewash,” mentioned Littler.

“I simply thought to myself, once I misplaced the bull, you have to get off to a fast begin. Anybody has to – it is solely first to 5. That is what I’ve executed. However yeah, not the very best that I dropped the leg.”

Littler is aiming to take Luke Humphries’ spot on the prime of the rankings by the 12 months’s finish, however the world primary made an emphatic begin to his bid for a second Grand Slam of Darts title as he breezed previous Alex Spellman.

The 30-year-old hit two maximums as he accomplished an easy 5-0 victory, serving to him to the highest of Group A after Michael Smith’s 5-3 win towards Nathan Aspinall.

Elsewhere, Gerwyn Value was crushed by Rickey Evans, Wessel Nijman overcame Josh Rock and Stefan Bellmont beat James Wade.

All 32 gamers featured on the opening day of the round-robin group stage in Wolverhampton, with the day evenly break up between two periods.