Luke Littler began his Grand Slam of Darts title defence with a comfortable 5-2 win over Beau Greaves on the opening night in Wolverhampton. The 19-year-old, the world number one, raced to a 3-0 lead and calmly withstood Greaves' fightback in the best-of-nine match, finishing with an average just under 110 and seven 180s.

Littler is unbeaten in 15 Grand Slam matches and is aiming to become the third player after Phil Taylor and Michael van Gerwen to win three successive titles. He had come up short at recent events, including a quarter-final exit at the European Championship, and he said the win was what he needed. "I am happy with the win," Littler told Sky Sports. "Obviously the past three or four majors haven't gone well, but I have been practising and I am glad I have shown it."S1S2

The expanded tournament features 48 players in 16 groups of three, with 48 group-stage matches played across the opening three days, which raises the pressure on securing a win from the first match. Luke Humphries, who won the World Grand Prix in October, beat Paolo Nebrida 5-3, while Ross Smith, the European champion, suffered a shock 5-3 defeat to Rusty-Jake Rodriguez.S1S2

Three-time champion Michael van Gerwen survived two match darts to beat debutant Henry Coates 5-4 in a last-leg decider. Gerwyn Price beat Joe Hunt 5-3, James Wade won 5-1 over Cam Crabtree, Gian van Veen averaged 110.51 in a 5-2 win over Carl Sneyd, and Chris Dobey beat Jan Schmidt 5-2 to close the night. Upsets also occurred, with Tom Sykes beating 15th seed Luke Woodhouse 5-3 and Tommy Morris beating Josh Rock 5-2.S1S2