Michael van Gerwen has boosted his hopes of reaching the Premier League playoffs by winning Week 11 in Birmingham.
With six quarter-final exits in 10 competitions, the Dutchman has work to do in order to reach the final four, but recording a 6-3 victory over Luke Littler in Thursday's final has helped his cause.
The seven-time champion defeated Nathan Aspinall and Michael Smith by 6-4 scorelines to set up a showdown with Littler, who was attempting to claim his third successive weekly win.
Littler came through meetings with Rob Cross and Luke Humphries by prevailing in last-leg deciders, averaging 107.23 in overcoming the latter.
However, despite holding a 3-2 lead over Van Gerwen in the final, the teenager was powerless to stop his opponent from reeling off the final four legs.
Van Gerwen moves ahead of Aspinall and into third position, two points adrift of second-placed Humphries and four behind leader Littler.
Smith's 6-3 triumph over Gerwyn Price earlier in the night has moved him to within one point of Aspinall in fourth position, with Cross a further six points adrift in sixth place.
While Price is a point further down the table, Peter Wright remains cut adrift at the bottom having gone down 6-4 to Humphries. body check tags ::
