Luke Littler bounced back from a shaky start to reach the quarter-finals of the Bahrain Masters with a strong finish.
Littler took the world championships by storm at Christmas, making front- and second-page news when the 16-year-old reached the final at Alexandra Palace.
Despite losing to Luke Humphries, Littler’s performances saw him quickly rise to the top table of the sport, including a spot in the World Series in Bahrain against Hong Kong’s Man Lok Leung. It also included rights.
Littler looked certain to take the first leg with an opening 180 and 84 to go, but surprisingly he missed seven darts on a double before Leon took the leg with a 107.
Leon also shot an 83 on the bullseye to take a 2-0 lead before Littler went into top gear, with the teenager hitting 151 and 136 in consecutive legs despite missing eight darts on his leg seven double. I took it and reeled it 5 times in a row.
Littler also hit a treble 20, a double 20, a double 10, and a somewhat unconventional 120 checkout for a 6-3 victory and a place in the quarterfinals against Nathan Aspinall.
Aspinal first defeated Lawrence Ilagan of the Philippines 6-5, who missed two match darts at 5-4, but Gerwyn Price defeated Reynaldo Rivera 6-4 and Rob Cross Defeated Tomoya Goto 6-3.
Japan’s Haruki Muramatsu achieved a 170 checkout in the fourth leg, but ultimately lost 6-5 to former world champion Peter Wright.