The 16-year-old Warrington superstar will take on PDC rival Nathan Aspinall in his World Series of Darts debut as he looks to reach the semi-finals.
The winner will face world number one Luke Humphries or Gerwyn Price in the last four, with the quarter-finals immediately followed by a spectacular session inside The Dome at the Bahrain International Circuit.
Littler fought back from a two-legged knockdown to take first control, seeing off his Hong Kong opponent and World Championship qualifier Man Lok Leung in last night’s first round match.
Aspinall, a former US Darts Masters winner, had to ride his luck and pull off a rescue performance in the opening round in Bahrain.
Aspinall overcame two dart errors from Lawrence Ilagan to come back from a 5-3 deficit and hit a stunning 12 darts in the final match to claim number one on the 2023 PDC Asia Tour.
“It started well, but he couldn’t afford to miss the double and we put pressure on him,” Aspinall said.
“We found a way to win, as we always do, and I think we came out with a great three legs at the end. I’m very happy to get the win and Friday is a big day.”
Warrington-born Littler, who honed his skills at St Helens Darts Academy and announced his big stage at the PDC World Darts Championship, where he reached the final at Alexandra Palace over the Christmas period, entered the contest as favorite to win. Participate in.
Leon took advantage of “The Nuke’s” slow start to take a 2-0 lead in the first round, but Littler performed well.
He opened his account with a 77 in leg three to tie the score at double ten, then posted checkouts of 151 and 136 on his way to a 5-2 lead before posting a 120 in leg nine to take the win. I did.
Today’s quarterfinals, semifinals, and finals are scheduled for 4:00 to 8:00 p.m., with the matchup between Littler and Aspinall scheduled for 5:15 p.m.
Viewers in the UK can watch the action on ITV4 from 4.30pm.
Bahrain Darts Masters 1st round results:
Peter Wright 6-5 Haruki Muramatsu
Gerwyn Price 6-4 Reynaldo Rivera
Nathan Aspinall 6-5 Lawrence Ilagan
Rob Cross 6-3 Tomoya Goto
Luke Littler 6-3 Man Lok Leung
Luke Humphries 6-0 Abdullah Said
Michael van Gerwen 6-0 Hasan Hadji
Michael Smith 6-5 Paolo Nebrida
Bahrain Darts Masters Quarterfinals, Best of 11 Legs:
Luke Humphries v Gerwyn Price
Michael Smith v Peter Wright
Nathan Aspinall v Luke Littler
Michael van Gerwen vs Rob Cross
Bahrain Darts Masters Semi-Finals, Best of 13 Legs:
Humphreys/Price v Aspinall/Littler
Van Gerwen/Cross vs Smith/Wright
Bahrain Darts Masters Final, Best of 15 Legs:
Humphries/Pryce/Aspinall/Littler v Van Gerwen/Cross/Smith/Wright