Luke Humphries defied a spirited fightback from Madars Razma to set up a showdown against reigning champion Gerwyn Price as the opening round of the 2025 Mr Vegas Nordic Darts Masters came to a close on Friday at the Forum Copenhagen.
Newly crowned Premier League champion Humphries trailed early on against Razma, as a beautiful 120 checkout from the Latvian put him 2-0 ahead in the early exchanges.
That seemingly spurred Humphries on and he looked set to race to victory as he strung together five straight legs to lead 5-2.
Razma was resilient, however, and dug deep to force a decider at 5-5 - only for Humphries to then produce a stunning 125 checkout to seal the victory and a place in the quarter-finals.
Price - who secured this title 12 months ago with victory over Rob Cross - got his title defence off to an excellent start as he beat Cor Dekker 6-3.
The Welshman looked set to register a whitewash win as he charged into a 5-0 lead, only to see his finishing go awry as Dekker responded, although Price eventually got over the line with an 81 checkout for an 11-darter.
In arguably the game of Friday's first round, Price's compatriot Jonny Clayton survived missed match darts from Darius Labanauskas before scraping through on double five for a 6-5 success.
Clayton looked on course for victory as reeled in the 170 checkout to lead 5-4, only for Labanauskas to instantly respond with a 154 of his own to force the deciding leg - but the Lithuanian then missed two at tops in the finale to allow Clayton to progress.
Welshman Clayton will now face Stephen Bunting in the last eight, after the reigning Bahrain Darts Masters champion ran out a 6-3 winner against Oskar Lukasiak in the penultimate game of the night.
Nathan Aspinall wrapped up the biggest victory of the evening as he beat Benjamin Rues 6-0, landing a 138 checkout en route.
Aspinall will now face Luke Littler after the World Champion beat Viktor Tingstrom 6-3, whilst Cross and Chris Dobey will also meet - having seen off Andreas Harrysson 6-4 and Jeffrey de Graaf 6-2 respectively.
The Nordic Darts Masters continues in Copenhagen on Saturday, with the quarter-finals, semi-finals and final taking place in a blockbuster evening session, as the third World Series winner of 2025 is set to be crowned.
The Mr Vegas Nordic Darts Masters is being broadcast live on ITV4 in the UK, through the PDC's worldwide broadcast partners including DAZN and Viaplay, and on PDCTV (excluding Germany, Austria & Switzerland based subscribers).
Click here for match stats & results.
2025 Mr Vegas Nordic Darts Masters
Friday June 6
First Round
Chris Dobey 6-2 Jeffrey de Graaf
Gerwyn Price 6-3 Cor Dekker
Rob Cross 6-4 Andreas Harrysson
Luke Humphries 6-5 Madars Razma
Nathan Aspinall 6-0 Benjamin Reus
Luke Littler 6-3 Viktor Tingstrom
Stephen Bunting 6-3 Oskar Lukasiak
Jonny Clayton 6-5 Darius Labanauskas
Saturday June 7 (1900 local time)
Quarter-Finals
Stephen Bunting v Jonny Clayton
Luke Littler v Nathan Aspinall
Rob Cross v Chris Dobey
Gerwyn Price v Luke Humphries
Best of 11 legs
Semi-Finals
Bunting/Clayton v Littler/Aspinall
Cross/Dobey v Price/Humphries
Best of 13 legs
Final
v
Best of 15 legs