De Sousa completes World Championship comeback over Whitlock
De Sousa - seeded 17th at the event - was pushed all the way by Whitlock, recovering from two sets down to win 3-2 and set up a match against Ryan Searle or Adam Gawlas.
The Portuguese squandered a chance to take the first set before ‘The Wizard’ pinned double 12 after missing a 138 checkout.
Whitlock had darts to take the second early on but missed double 20 with De Sousa throwing to stay in the set.
Whitlock stayed composed, though, taking a 2-0 lead on double 10.
But that would be the start of a fightback for De Sousa, who held then held twice to make it 2-1.
De Sousa broke the Whitlock throw again in the first leg of the fourth set with double four proving decisive for the former, who levelled the match at 2-2.
The nerves looked to be getting at the pair on stage with a number of shots at the doubles going wayward, but De Sousa eventually kept his cool to complete a remarkable comeback.
Earlier in the day, England's Andrew Gilding won 3-2 in an all-Brit affair against the Welshman Robert Owen.
However, Wales would see success on the stage with Lewis Williams moving past the Netherlands' Niels Zonneveld.
