Beau Greaves missed match darts for the chance to claim the scalp of Michael van Gerwen at the Grand Slam of Darts.
The 21-year-old from Doncaster had three darts to take out 52 in the deciding leg and claim her second big win in a couple of weeks, having beaten Luke Littler on her way to the World Youth Championship final.
But she could not take it out and Van Gerwen swept in to take a 5-4 win in their Group G clash.
Greaves, who is in the form of her life, having recently won a PDC Tour card, has a crack at another former world champion on Sunday when she takes on Gary Anderson needing to win to stay in the tournament.
Littler cruised through the opening match campaign in Wolverhampton.
The 18-year-old, who is defending the title he won last season, has had a successful week after passing his driving test on Monday and did not have to get out of first gear to ease past Karel Sedacek 5-1 in his Group E match.
Bigger hazards will come against Daryl Gurney and Connor Scutt in his remaining group games over the next week but he is in pole position to overtake Luke Humphries and become world number one.
Humphries is almost certain to lose his place at the top of the rankings, but got his campaign off to a good start, thrashing American Alex Spellman 5-0.
It was a day of shocks in Wolverhampton as Rickey Evans beat Gerwyn Price, Stefan Bellmont saw off James Wade and Wessel Nijman got the better of Josh Rock.
