The night started with a bang as the two biggest darts stars in the world played out a high-quality contest that went down to a final-leg decider.
Humphries and Littler both hit seven 180s and averaged over 102 and 105 respectively, but both were surprisingly poor on the outer ring – missing 28 doubles between them.
Humphries was the better player throughout, but at 4-1 up he started missing doubles badly, 17 in all by the end of the match, as Littler engineered an escape to make it five straight wins against his big rival.
World number two Humphries has now lost 11 of his 15 Premier League meetings with Littler, with his last victory of any kind against the 19-year-old coming in the tournament’s final last May.
The past four defeats before this one came in tournament finals, and perhaps it is becoming a mental barrier now for the defending Premier League champion as his scoring was solid all game, but he could just not get over the line.
Comebacks were a theme of the opening quarter-finals with all bar Van Gerwen’s stroll against an out-of-sorts Josh Rock filled with excitement.
Stephen Bunting finished bottom of the table last year after failing to win a single match in the first eight weeks, but looked to have one sewn up when leading 4-0, only to watch Jonny Clayton reel off six straight legs to win 6-4.
And Price had to come from 3-1 and 4-2 down to beat Gian van Veen in the first of his two 6-5 victories on the night.