Belgian Darts Open: Luke Littler beats Ryan Searle as Michael van Gerwen suffers shock defeat to Boris Krcmar

Defending Belgian Open champion Luke Littler will face Luke Woodhouse in the last 16 on Sunday, while Gerwyn Price will take on Australian No 1 Damon Heta;Michael van Gerwen was knocked out of the Belgian Darts Open after a shock defeat to Boris Krcmar, while home favourite Mike De Decker beat Luke Humphries and Luke Littler opened his title defence with a win over Ryan Searle. -World No 3 and three-time world champion Van Gerwen suffered a 6-4 loss to Croatian Krcmar, who will advance to face James Wade after the UK Open finalist’s win over Raymond van Barneveld.Reigning champion Littler meanwhile pencilled in a last 16 clash with Luke Woodhouse after his 6-3 win over Searle.”I’m happy to get the first win here, settle in and I’ll come back tomorrow afternoon,” said Littler, arriving on the back of his UK Open and Premier League night victories in Minehead and Brighton respectively.World No 1 Humphries crashed out in a 6-4 defeat to De Decker, who beat the former world champion in the World Grand Prix final last October.”To beat the number one of the world in my home country is amazing,” said De Decker, who averaged 100.45 and will now face Martin Schindler on Sunday afternoon.”I’m just glad to get through but today was a big game and I’m really glad that I played well and I won.”The fans are really supportive for all the Belgian players, so to reach the Sunday is an amazing feeling.”Gerwyn Price averaged 112.42 on his way to a 6-2 win over Gian van Veen, Damon Heta cruised to a 6-0 win over Michael Smith and Ross Smith posted an average of 112.60 as he saw off Rob Cross 6-2.The Belgian crowd notably sang ‘happy birthday!’ to Price after his win after the Welshman turned 40 on Friday.”Because I’m 40 now, maybe double tops will be a bit better. I still feel 20 and look 21 so happy days!””He (van Veen) is a fantastic player and I know I need to play those sort of averages to win, so thankfully I pulled it out of the bag.”