World Darts Championship LIVE: Latest quarter-final action as Dobey faces Price before Luke Littler returns

100.88 – Luke Littler 99.43 – Callan Rydz 98.26 – Michael van Gerwen 96.62 – Stephen Bunting 95.87 – Peter Wright 94.39 – Chris Dobey 92.29 – Gerwyn Price 91.22 – Nathan Aspinall

The 17-year-old is ranked fourth in the world entering the championship and filled with confidence. Victories in the Grand Slam of Darts, the Premier League and World Series Finals have been some of the highlights from a glittering year as Littler mania has taken the sport by storm.

And ‘The Nuke’ survived a scare against Ryan Joyce to advance to the last eight. Here’s everything you need to know about Littler’s next match in this year’s championship and who he might meet further down the line:

In one of the all-time great pieces of nominative determinism, the man at the epicentre of the poker boom was called Chris Moneymaker.

Moneymaker found himself in the eye of a perfect storm: interest in poker surged after the 1998 film Rounders starring Matt Damon and Ed Norton, at a time when the internet’s arrival spawned poker websites which drew millions of American players. In 2003, ESPN took a punt televising the biggest event in poker, the World Series.

They struck gold with Moneymaker, an accountant from Georgia who became the world champion, beating 852 opponents and turning his $40 buy-in into the $2.5m winner’s prize. He was an ordinary American Joe and his story had an inspirational effect. People who’d never before picked up a deck of cards suddenly wanted to be the next Moneymaker.

Luke Littler came through an exacting test of his credentials as favourite for the World Darts Championship with a tense 4-3 victory over Ryan Joyce to book a place in the quarter-final.

Expectation on last year’s runner-up was ramped up following defending champion Luke Humphries’ surprise exit and the 17-year-old had to withstand intense pressure at Alexandra Palace.

His class showed when it was needed most as he averaged 111 in the final set, having hit 14 180s in the match.

Rydz has the highest tournament average (100.91), yet the bookies and most pundits have tipped last year’s runner-up, Luke Littler, as the favourite throughout this year’s tournament, with ‘The Nuke’ hitting the most 180s in the tournament (22) and eight more than Rydz.

The PDC World Darts Championship is in full flow as we return from the Christmas break, with plenty of shocks and show-stopping moments already captivating fans at Alexandra Palace.

Luke Littler is the favourite to win the title in January, and will not have to face last year’s winner Luke Humphries after the defending champion was beaten by two-time winner Peter Wright in the last-16.

And there will be a new champion after holder Luke Humphries was stunned by two-time winner Peter Wright in the last 16.

Gary Anderson, Michael Smith, Mike De Decker and Rob Cross were among the top seeds to suffer shock early exits with 96 players competing for the iconic Sid Waddell Trophy and a £2.5m prize pot.

Good morning and welcome to The Independent’s coverage of today’s World Darts Championship action.

It’s quarter-finals day with the last eight challengers all hoping to book a spot in the semi-finals and take one step closer to winning the world title.

Coverage will be shown on Sky Sports throughout the day with big-hitters like Chris Dobey and Michael van Gerwen in action during the afternoon session before Luke Littler takes to the stage in the evening session tonight.

Who will make it to the final four? Let’s find out…