Luke Littler wins the World Grand Prix for the first time in his career. The darts wonderkid gives Luke Humphries no chance in the final.
Another milestone for Luke Littler! The 18-year-old wonderkid has won the World Grand Prix of Darts for the first time in his career, clearly defeating his main competitor Luke Humphries 6-1 in sets in the final.
“The Nuke” gave “Cool Hand Luke” almost no chance in the final, achieving a three-dart average of 92.15 points, while Humphries even reached 93.61 points in average. But particularly in the crucial moments, Littler was always there.
Remarkable: Littler won the first four sets and the decisive seventh set in the decider!
Darts: Littler narrowly misses 9-darter
Littler almost created a real highlight at the beginning of the third set.
In the first leg, the Englishman threw eight perfect darts (D20, T20, T20, T20, T20, T20, T20, T17) in the “Double-In Double-Out Format” and missed the last dart on the bullseye, narrowly missing the 9-darter.
Littler’s last arrow, however, landed in the single-8. It would have been only the fourth 9-darter in the history of the World Grand Prix. This feat had only been achieved previously by James Wade, Robert Thornton (both in 2014) and Brendan Dolan (2011).
Power demonstration! Humphries helpless
Humphries was largely helpless in his 13th major final. Littler, playing his eleventh major final, repeatedly made the right moves – such as when he checked out 104 points in the decider of the third set to take a 3-0 set lead.
Littler also won the decider of the fourth set. Humphries also repeatedly showed his skills and cheered loudly when he checked out 154 points with a high finish to reduce the set score to 1-4. After a short break, Littler secured the next two sets and thus the title.
In 2023, Humphries had still won the World Grand Prix (5-2 in the final against Gerwyn Price), but against Littler on Sunday evening, nothing could be done.