A teary-eyed Luke Littler nearly hit nine quarters as he began his bid for the PDC World Championship title with a thrilling 3-1 win over Ryan Meikle.
The 17-year-old made headlines around the world when he reached the final of the tournament last January, when he lost to Luke Humphries.
At the start of this season on Saturday, Littler was millimeters away from dart perfection when he missed 12 doubles, but he averaged an impressive 140.91 in the final group.
He was eventually overcome with emotion, cutting his onstage interview short.
Littler started slow against Mickley, who had two arrows in the first set, but twice led with 20 goals.
Mikel did not look intimidated by his English team-mate and equalised, but Littler took the third set and exploded into life in the fourth.
The tournament favorite hit four 180s maximums as he took three straight legs on the 11th, 10th and 11th darts.
