Luke Littler's hopes of leapfrogging Luke Humphries as the new world No. 1 this weekend were ended on Saturday by a 10-7 European Championship second-round defeat to James Wade.
Litttler, 18, needed to reach the final in Dortmund to take top spot in the PDC Order of Merit, but his first televised loss to Wade means his wait goes on.
"The Nuke" recovered from 2-0 down to take a 3-2 lead and with the scores level at 4-4, he narrowly missed bull when going for a 170-checkout, allowing Wade to edge 5-4 ahead. Littler appeared frustrated by the time Wade was taking to remove his darts from the board in the early stages of the match.
Both players averaged 97.75 in a tight contest but Wade's 45% success rate on the outer ring helped give him the edge.
With the scores level at 7-7, "The Machine" took advantage of Littler missing darts at tops and then double 10 in successive legs to secure his place in the quarterfinals.
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"I don't think Luke played that well and I think I should have run away with it sooner than I did," Wade told ITV.
"I think everyone in darts knows I can play darts. I just think it's bookmakers and TV production that don't realise I can.
"Without Luke darts isn't getting talked about. I played better than him. Just positive to move forward."
He added: "I'm happy to move forward and all good. I'm not going to kid myself, Luke didn't play his A-game there."
Littler will need to wait until the Grand Slam of Darts next month in Wolverhampton for his next chance to top the rankings.
Humphries, knowing that his No. 1 spot was safe for now, was forced to dig deep against Cameron Menzies in his second-round match before taking the decider to edge through 10-9.
Earlier on Saturday, top seed Nathan Aspinall crashed out after a 10-7 defeat to Danny Noppert and four-time European champion Michael van Gerwen beat world No. 8 Chris Dobey 10-5.
Ryan Searle fell victim to impressive world youth champion Gian van Veen, who cruised into the third round with a 10-2 win and Ryan Joyce saw off Martin Schindler 10-7.
Another home favourite, Ricardo Pietreczko, defeated 2024 runner-up Jermaine Wattimena 10-6, while 2022 champion Ross Smith lost 10-6 to Daryl Gurney.
Saturday's European Championship second-round results
Ryan Searle 2-10 Gian van Veen
Daryl Gurney 10-6 Ross Smith
Martin Schindler 7-10 Ryan Joyce
Chris Dobey 5-10 Michael van Gerwen
Ricardo Pietreczko 10-6 Jermaine Wattimena
Nathan Aspinall 7-10 Danny Noppert
Luke Littler 7-10 James Wade
Luke Humphries 10-9 Cameron Menzies
Information from PA contributed to this story.