Teenager Luke Littler continued his incredible rise with an 8-5 win over Michael van Gerwen at the Bahrain Masters.
It was Littler’s first PDC senior title after narrowly falling short to Luke Humphries in the World Championship final earlier this month.
Littler, 16, previously threw nine darters in Game 1 of his quarterfinal victory over Nathan Aspinall.
“No one will believe me, but until yesterday I hadn’t thrown a dart since the world final,” Littler told ITV4.
“MVG is awesome. I’m so happy to win on my debut. This week was unbelievable.”
England’s Littler defeated three-time world champion Van Gerwen of the Netherlands in the eighth and 12th legs.
He beat Hong Kong’s Man Lok Leung 6-3 in Thursday’s opening match, then defeated Aspinall 6-3 and Gerwyn Price 7-3 on Friday to reach the final.
He defeated Aspinall, Price and Van Gerwen to win the title, defeating three of the top five players in the world rankings.
Littler also became the youngest player to land a nine-darter (501 points with minimal darts) on live television, and only the second player to accomplish the feat after 16 in the World Series, which began in 2013. It became. World Champion Phil Taylor.
He will next return to Europe to compete in the Dutch Masters in Marsport Den Bosch on January 26th and 27th.
“I didn’t have any specific goals for this year. I never thought I would get this trophy,” Littler said.
“I’ll just have to see how my darts go.”
Littler’s win in Bahrain means he takes home the top prize of £20,000, on top of the £200,000 he won for finishing runner-up at the world championships.
He has great potential after being selected as the youngest player to take part in the eight-a-side Premier League, which starts on February 1st.
World champion Humphries, who beat British compatriot Littler 7-4 in the final at Alexandra Palace on January 3, was on track to reunite with the teenager in Bahrain. , but fell short in the quarterfinals against Price.
The Welshman won 6-4 in the opening match of the day, ending world number one Humphries’ winning streak at 20.