Luke Littler moved into the US Darts Masters quarter-finals at Madison Square Garden on Thursday night after surviving a 6-4 first-round test against Canada’s David Cameron, before defending champion Luke Humphries beat Leonard Gates 6-1 in New York.
The World Series event had already produced one headline shock when Jim Long knocked out Josh Rock, but Littler avoided joining him on the wrong side of the draw. The world champion did not have the smoothest passage against Cameron, yet the closing legs were enough to keep his first US Darts Masters title bid alive.
Humphries then gave the night a firmer sense of order. The reigning champion, back at the venue where he lifted last year’s title, gave Gates little room to turn the match into a home-stage scrap and advanced with the most emphatic scoreline among the headline names.
Finals Day Field Takes Shape
The result means both English heavyweights remain in the hunt heading into Friday’s finals day, when the quarter-finals, semi-finals and final are all due to be played. The tournament is the fourth stop of the 2026 World Series and carries a £30,000 winner’s prize.
Gerwyn Price, Stephen Bunting, Gian van Veen and Jonny Clayton also came through the opening round, leaving the PDC contingent largely intact despite Rock’s early exit. The full night-one progress was confirmed in the PDC’s US Darts Masters updates.
