Reigning champion Luke Humphries secured his place in the quarter-finals of the World Grand Prix in Leicester.
The 29-year-old world number one defeated German Ricardo Pietreczko 3-1, producing a 180 to set up a 130 checkout and clinch an important third set.
Rob Cross, who beat pre-tournament favourite Luke Littler in his opening match, reached the last eight for the first time with a 3-1 victory over Martin Schindler.
Jonny Clayton, winner in 2021, came from a set down to beat Ross Smith 3-1, but 2022 runner-up Nathan Aspinall is out following a 3-2 loss to Ryan Joyce.
Following Littler’s first-round defeat, Michael van Gerwen and Michael Smith were both surprise first-round exits on Tuesday.
Humphries, who celebrated his maiden TV ranking title with victory over Gerwyn Price 12 months ago, had to fight back from a set and two legs down to beat Masters winner Stephen Bunting in his first-round match.
He continued his title defence on Wednesday thanks to a superb checkout in the third set after Pietreczko had levelled the match, seeing out victory to set up a meeting with Clayton.
The second-round matches conclude on Thursday, with Gary Anderson – having beaten world number two Smith – up against Mike de Decker from 19:00 BST.
Wales’ 2020 champion Price faces two-time winner James Wade, Northern Ireland’s 2017 champion Daryl Gurney takes on Joe Cullen, and two-time runner-up Dave Chisnall meets Dimitri van den Bergh in best-of-five contests.
All four quarter-finals take place on Friday, before the tournament concludes at the weekend.
