“The Nuke”
Luke Littler is only 16 – and is shaking up the Darts World Cup in London
Luke Littler celebrates his success at the World Darts Championship in London
© Steven Paston/PA / DPA
At the Darts World Cup, Luke Littler continues to perform well, Michael van Gerwen underlines his ambitions for title number four and world champion Michael Smith wins without shine. Today two Germans are hoping for surprises.
By Kevin Schulte, London
This article first appeared at ntv.de.
He just keeps winning: the 16 year old boy Luke Littler is in the round of 16 at the Darts World Cup. In the confident 4-1 victory over Matt Campbell, “The Nuke” played like an old hand again and gave his Canadian opponent no chance.
The first two sets went to zero for the English darts prodigy. Littler was somewhat lucky to grab round number three and even when Campbell won the only set, Littler didn’t let himself be dissuaded from the round of 16 course. After the young star’s next victory, emotional scenes took place away from the TV cameras. Littler was welcomed by his family and hugged his visibly proud mother for several seconds. The Littler family seemed more overwhelmed by the super talent’s outstanding triumph than the teenager himself.
“The Nuke” then sat down casually at the press conference and answered the journalists’ many questions more tightly than extensively. But not out of arrogance, but rather out of shyness, which makes the 16-year-old even more likeable. “All in all, it was a good performance. I have nothing to lose here,” said Littler, who has become a crowd favorite with his strong performances. Only Michael van Gerwen, Luke Humphries and Gerwyn Price are traded higher than the teenager by bookmakers.
During breaks at the Darts World Cup, Littler plays Xbox
Littler was also asked whether he had had time to reflect on what he had achieved during the Christmas break. “To be honest, I was on the Xbox the whole time,” commented the young Englishman bluntly. After his second round victory, Littler announced that he wanted to exchange the Xbox for the training board over the holidays.
But it was enough for the next round without any special preparation. In the round of 16, Littler will face either Jim Williams, who knocked out 2020 and 2022 world champion Peter Wright, or Raymond van Barneveld. A meeting with the Dutch darts legend would be the ultimate generational duel: “Barney” is 40 years older than Littler.
“I would be over the moon to play against Raymond,” said the teenager when asked about his next possible opponent on December 30th.
The top stars Michael van Gerwen and defending champion Michael Smith also achieved the next victories. “Mighty Mike”, as van Gerwen is called, had no problems at all in the clear 4-0 win against his weak compatriot Richard Veenstra.
From the round of 16 onwards, significantly more difficult tests could await the Dutchman. A possible opponent in the round of 16 is England’s co-favorite Stephen Bunting, who first has to beat the German Florian Hempel on Thursday (from 1:45 p.m., Sport1/Dazn). “Bring me Bunting. If you want the title, you have to beat everyone,” said van Gerwen on stage in a TV interview. “Florian made one of the greatest comebacks in the history of this tournament against Dimitri Van den Bergh, but I would rather play against Bunting,” added “MvG” at the press conference afterwards.
Defending champion Michael Smith, on the other hand, is not a hot contender for the title. The “Bully Boy” won 4-1 against the Latvian Madars Razma, but only showed a world-class performance in the last round. Outsider Razma had previously missed several chances to give the game a different direction.
Opportunities for two Germans on Thursday in London
On today’s eleventh day of the tournament, two Germans are hoping for a big hit: After Martin Schindler and Gabriel Clemens were eliminated yesterday afternoon, the aim is to keep at least one German in the tournament. Florian Hempel is an outsider against Bunting, just like Ricardo Pietreczko in the evening (approx. 9:15 p.m., Sport1/Dazn) against top favorite Luke Humphries.
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