Luke Littler surprisingly eliminated in the Darts European Championship in Dortmund and appears visibly frustrated. The defeat also has consequences regarding the world rankings.
Luke Littler was surprisingly eliminated in the round of 16 at the European Championship in Dortmund and thus missed the opportunity to climb to rank one of the PDC Order of Merit.
Littler lost 7:10 in legs against a strongly performing James Wade. “Luke Littler moving to number one is off the table. And Luke Littler is not amused about this elimination and about this match,” shouted SPORT1 commentator Basti Schwele into his microphone.
Annoyed, the wonderkid left the stage and appeared visibly frustrated. During the match, there had been repeated whistles from the Dortmund audience. Meanwhile, Wade let himself be celebrated by the fans and gave Littler an encouraging pat on the back after the handshake.
Littler must continue to wait for European Championship title
Curious: Both players achieved exactly 97.75 points in the three-dart average. However, Wade had a better double percentage (45.45 percent) than Littler (33.33 percent).
In the 15th leg, Littler missed break darts on the double at 7:7. Wade completed his throw and also won the next two legs to take the match.
To overtake Humphries as number one, “The Nuke” would have had to reach the tournament final taking place on Sunday at the very least.
Thus, Littler not only has to continue waiting for his first European Championship title, but also remains number two in the world rankings.