Luke Littler bounced again from his first-round exit on the Betfred World Matchplay to say a seventh PDC title of the 12 months at Gamers Championship 15 in Milton Keynes.
Littler made a terrific begin to this week’s treble-header in Milton Keynes by registering his seventh PDC title of the 12 months, with {the teenager} additionally changing into the primary participant to win a number of Gamers Championship titles in 2024.
The 17-year-old received the 12 months’s opening Gamers Championship occasion again in February, which sparked a outstanding sequence of 14 completely different winners from as many occasions, however has now ended that run by beating Dutchman Wessel Nijman 8-6 in a captivating remaining.
“I know what Wessel is capable of,” mentioned Littler, who boasted a event common of 100.3 throughout his seven matches. “I’ve seen him dominate the last weekend of the Development Tour, but it was a good final, and I’m happy to be the only player with two [Players Championship] titles this year!
“I’ve not likely picked up a dart because the World Matchplay, so to return right here and win is even higher. I’ve bought to again myself to win virtually every thing. With the usual of the opposite gamers I most likely cannot do this, however I would like to win one other main title this 12 months.”
Littler, making his first look since his early exit to Michael van Gerwen in Blackpool – started his marketing campaign with consecutive ton-plus averages in wins over Boris Krcmar and Pascal Rupprecht.
The Warrington wonderkid then dispatched Jonny Clayton to ebook his place within the final 16, earlier than closing out a brace of 6-4 victories in opposition to Rhys Griffin and Krzysztof Ratajski to achieve the final 4.
Littler continued his cost with a crushing 7-2 success in opposition to his stablemate Chris Dobey within the semi-finals, averaging 103 to arrange a showdown in opposition to Nijman, as two of the game’s most enjoyable abilities locked horns.
Trailing 2-0, Nijman reeled off 4 straight legs – together with a spectacular 160 checkout – to grab the initiative, just for Littler to reply with legs of 13 and 11 darts to revive parity at 4 apiece.
This was adopted by a run of 4 successive breaks of throw, though Nijman was left to rue lacking two darts for a 7-5 lead, as Littler stole a march within the closing phases to triumph.
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Nijman, who received a hat-trick of Improvement Tour titles on the Marshall Enviornment final weekend, produced a quartet of ton-topping averages to race by to the final eight, overcoming Christian Kist, Gian van Veen, Graham Corridor and Darren Beveridge.
The 24-year-old then edged out Gary Anderson in a compelling quarter-final conflict, then defied a 104 common from Damon Heta to emerge by a high-quality last-four tussle.
Anderson had earlier produced an astronomical 123.83 common in his third-round demolition of Andrew Gilding, reeling off legs of 11, 12, 12, 13, 13 and 13 darts to cap off an impressed show.
World champion Luke Humphries – recent from his World Matchplay heroics – misplaced within the last-16 to Dobey, whereas five-time world champion Raymond van Barneveld additionally landed a hat-trick of ton-plus averages earlier than falling to Anderson within the last-16.
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