After his victory at the Grand Slam of Darts, Luke Littler stormed through the tournament at the Players Championship Finals. He announced a change for his 9-darter, which is still missing the world record. Martin Schindler misses the duel with the world champion.
He’ll go back to the hotel and play a bit on his Nintendo Switch, go to bed early and then look forward to the match on Sunday. No, Luke Littler doesn’t have to worry about his game at the moment.
The 17-year-old continues to storm through the tournament table at the Players Championship Finals and will jump to fourth place in the world rankings. Danny Noppert, one of only three remaining Top16 players in the round of 16, also had no chance against the prodigy. Littler averaged 104.7 points and only needed 20 double court attempts to go 10-3.
“The Grand Slam gave me a lot of self-confidence. And the longer format suits me very well. It’s all about winning,” Littler said after his tenth win in a row. In fact, it doesn’t seem to be about winning matches anymore. The victories have long been priced in.
The questions that still remain: How high and how quickly does he finish off his opponents? And: Will he be the first player in history to throw five 9-darters in one season? Littler has four in his first year as a professional and has narrowly missed the record several times. In his second round match in the afternoon he narrowly missed double 12 after eight perfect darts. Against Noppert there were seven perfect arrows before he failed on the triple-19.
“Hopefully it works tomorrow,” said Littler and announced a change: “If I get the chance, I will end up going a different way: triple-17, double-15.”
Will De Decker overthrow the high flyer?
However, winning could actually be a little tighter in the quarter-finals on Sunday (1:45 p.m., DAZN live). The opponent is the newly crowned World Grand Prix champion Mike De Decker. Like Littler, the Belgian has only lost five legs in the entire tournament. In the round of 16 he duped Niels Zonneveld 10:4.
Only Ross Smith’s path was even clearer, as he only lost his third leg in a 10-1 win against Andrew Gilding. At the dress rehearsal for the Darts World Cup starting on December 15th, he will now face Scott Williams, who reached a major quarter-final for the second time in his career.
With Connor Scutt, a player without a tour card was able to qualify for the round of the last eight players at the Players Championship Finals for the first time. He has to deal with Dirk van Duijvenbode, who is pain-free again after his shoulder problems.
Martin Schindler missed the jump into the final Sunday. The German number one lost to Ryan Joyce 6:10 with a weak average of 87.59 points. Schindler also missed the duel with world champion Luke Humphries, who would have waited after his round of 16 win against Damon Heta.
If Lutz Wöckener isn’t just anyone Sport in self-experimentation tried it out, he writes about darts and sports politics, but sometimes also something off-kilter like football.
Players Championship Finals, results
Round of 16
Daryl Gurney (NIR) – Connor Scutt (ENG) 3:10
Scott Williams (ENG) – Jeffrey de Graaf (SWE) 10:8
Mike De Decker (BEL) – Niels Zonneveld (NED) 10:4
Jermaine Wattimena (NED) – Dirk van Duijvenbode (NED) 5:10
Martin Schindler (D) – Ryan Joyce (ENG) 6:10
Luke Littler (ENG) – Danny Noppert (NED) 10:3
Andrew Gilding (ENG) – Ross Smith (ENG) 1:10
Luke Humphries (ENG) – Damon Heta (AUS) 10:6
Quarterfinals
Luke Littler (ENG) – Mike De Decker (BEL)
Scott Williams (ENG) – Ross Smith (ENG)
Connor Scutt (ENG) – Dirk van Duijvenbode (NED)
Luke Humphries (ENG) – Ryan Joyce (ENG)
