WARRINGTON’S Luke Littler cruised into the quarter-finals of the Grand Slam of Darts and remained on track to retain his title and claim the World’s Number one top spot!
Littler put on an imperious doubling display with a 105 average to secure a 10-4 win over Wessel Nijman to continue his title defence in Wolverhampton.
The 18-year-old was on another level in the opening session, a near 111 average helping him clean sweep all five legs on offer as Nijman could find no answer to his electric play.
Nijman then came back out of the break and managed to wrestle a bit of the control to bring the score to 5-2 but then missed a massive opportunity to break the throw again and let Littler move 7-3 ahead, ‘The Nuke’ letting out a celebration as he realised how pivotal the 10th leg was.
That huge moment put the game firmly back in Littler’s favour as he then came out swinging, breaking the throw, taking out 86 on the bull, and confirming an 83 per cent success rate on the doubles as he took the game with a 96 checkout.
It means Littler continues his quest to move to world No 1, a spot in the Grand Slam final enough to help him usurp Luke Humphries.
“I just want to win as quick as possible. I know Wessel, we’ve had our battles on the Pro Tour, so to get the win over him tonight was special. We go onto the last eight,” Littler told Sky Sports.
“If someone plays their best darts, they might catch me but tonight felt very good. I have my eyes on everything, the title, world No 1.
“I know if I get to the final then I’ll be world No 1, so I’m taking it game by game and hopefully Josh and I can have another good game like the Matchplay.”
