Jonny Clayton suffered a shock second-round exit against Dimitri Van den Bergh as Michael van Gerwen held his nerve against Stephen Bunting at the World Grand Prix of Darts.
Van Gerwen and Stephen Bunting put on a firecracker of a show as the Green Machine survived another scare, the Dutchman's 94 average eventually proving too much for the St Helens man to deal with.
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Peter Wright, Chris Dobey and Van den Bergh also secured their quarter-final spots in final-set showdowns as the double-in, double-out tournament took no prisoners.
The penultimate match of the night saw a Michael van Gerwen that was struggling to finish on the doubles battle it out with a Stephen Bunting ready to take every opportunity that came his way.
The first set went the way of Bunting despite averaging 10 per cent less than Van Gerwen, a lovely 102 finish securing him the fourth leg whilst some poor finishing by the Green Machine in the deciding leg allowed him to capitalise.
The second set then saw the momentum firmly swing in the favour of Van Gerwen as a 144 checkout helped him on his way to a 3-0 whitewash and the third set was an almost identical scenario, a sensational 150 being the stand out finish from the Dutchman.
Bunting wasn't going down without a fight and used some big maximums to get back into it, taking the fourth set to bring it level at 2-2 but his fightback ended as Van Gerwen took the final set 3-1.
After an intense battle, Van Gerwen was proud of his performance and responded to calls from Wright that he had been "mediocre" so far this year.
"Of course it means a lot to me, especially if you have to play a game like this," said Van Gerwen.
"It wasn't easy today and I made it incredibly difficult for myself especially early doors in the first set.
"After that, I found my gear and I did what I had to do but he started to play well as well and it became a really good battle.
"You have to be confident and when you play a 94 average against Stephen Bunting in the second round you can be proud of yourself.
"My form has been mediocre but I've still won the Premier League and Matchplay."
Reigning World Grand Prix champion Jonny Clayton saw his run cut short in a tight contest against Dimitri Van den Bergh, the Welshman grinding out the first set but failing to back it up in the second with Van den Bergh breaking the throw to take the set 3-1.
Van den Bergh then continued his momentum to win the second set, a 113 finish taking him to 2-0 before a sublime 153 checkout secured his dominance.
The Ferret wasn't out of it yet and held his throw well before breaking Van den Bergh to take it to a deciding set but it wasn't enough to stay in the competition as Van den Bergh hit his stride and hit a brilliant 110 checkout on his way to taking the deciding set 3-1.
Snakebite Peter Wright and Krzysztof Ratajski got off to a nervous start in their encounter as they traded five breaks of throw in an opening set that eventually went the way of Wright with a tops finish.
The second and third set saw the momentum continue to swing with both going all the way to a deciding leg, Ratajski breaking Wright's throw with a crucial D3 to bring it to one-apiece before holding his own a throw later on a D5 finish to go a set ahead.
However, the World Champion came back swinging and with a total of eight maximum finishes in the match took the fourth and fifth sets in three straight legs to progress to the quarter-finals and reclaim the world number one spot, for now, from Gerwyn Price.
The first match of the evening saw an absolute thriller between Adrian Lewis and Chris Dobey, Lewis taking the first set 3-0 after breaking "Hollywood" twice in the opener.
Dobey fought back to take three straight legs in the second set to bring a nervous tie all square and, despite a big 126 finish from Lewis, managed to make it 2-1, a 111 finish of his own helping him on the way.
The fourth set was a nail-biting affair and, after both players held their throw well, it was Lewis who fought hardest to take us all the way to a deciding set, a nice 120 finish spurring him on early in the set.
However, it was Dobey who was to come away with the victory and hold his throw, taking tops and letting out a cry of relief.
Tomorrow sees the conclusion of the second round as Martin Lukeman takes on Ross Smith, Daryl Gurney faces Madars Razma, Gerwyn price has a tough test against Joe Cullen and Nathan Aspinall looks to back up a big performance against Danny Noppert.
Check out daily Darts news on skysports.com/darts, our app for mobile devices and our Twitter account @skysportsdarts. You can watch the 25th staging of the World Grand Prix 'Double in, Double out' set format on Sky Sports all the way through to the final on October 9 in Leicester.