World Matchplay 2024 - The Debutants
Luke Littler
Born: 21. January 2007Lives in: Warrington, England
Darts: 23g Target
Nickname: The Nuke
Walk-on-Music: Greenlight (Pitbull)
Luke Littler will be the fourth of the debutants who will come on stage and he will play in the penultimate first round match against Michael van Gerwen
There is not much what is new to say about Luke Littler. Littler probably is the youngest ever debutant in the World Matchplay though he already started to "play" darts when he was 18 months old and threw his first nine-darter when he was 13. Many more followed till today. In Youth darts he won more or less everything and when he was 14 he won his first senior title. 2022 he took part as seeded player in the WDF World Championship and Richard Veenstra needed a record average in the second round to beat him. In the same year he took part in both the WDF Europe Cup Youth and the WDF Europe Cup. He won the Youth Cup and reached the quarterfinals of the seniors. After that he went on to win the JDC World Darts Championship and the PDC players started to sense they would have a hard time with him as soon as he was old enough to join the Circuit.
Littler's first PDCTV tournament were the UK Open 2023 for which he qualified as an amateur. He lost fourth round to Adam Gawlas - after he had eliminated fellow World Matchplay debutant Ritchie Edhouse in round three. At the end of the year Littler won the PDC Youth World Championship. His opponent was Gian van Veen - now as well a World Matchplay debutant - and after that defended his JDC World Darts Championship title. By the Development Tour Order of Merit he qualified for the PDC World Championship 2023/24 and there gave Christian Kist, Andrew Gilding, Matt Campbell, Raymond van Barneveld, Brendan Dolan and Rob Cross the shivers before he lost to Luke Humphries in the final.
Luke Littler started the year 2024 after he got his Tour Card in Qualifying School with a win at the Bahrain Darts Masters where he defeated Michael van Gerwen in the final. In the following World Series Event - the Dutch Darts Masters - it was van Gerwen who defeated Littler in the final. After Littler was nominated for the Premier League many doubted he would be able to cope with it but Littler stayed cool. He met Michael van Gerwen several times in the Premier League, defeated him three times and lost to him four times while two of the defeats were close 5:6 defeats. At the end Littler won the Premier League title after he ended the season as head of the table.
On the Pro Tour Littler started as well with a win. On the European Tour Littler had to play - due to his place in the Order of Merit - through the Tour Card Holder Qualifier, which he managed four times, the fifth time he was qualified by the Pro Tour Order of Merit. Two of the events he won - only in one event his average was lower then at least around 100.
Littler's clash with van Gerwen in the penultimate first round match on Monday night is probably the most highly anticipated of all first round matches and it could be a highlight. It could get interesting because van Gerwens performances this year were quite inconsistent and as well because Littler too didn't win every single match he was involved - there is no clear favourite. I think one can assume that both will be highly motivated.