Darts prodigy only plays Xbox and still wins
Luke Littler continues to play great at the World Darts Championship, Michael van Gerwen underlines his ambitions for title number four and World Champion Michael Smith wins without brilliance. Today, two Germans are hoping for surprises.
He just keeps on winning: 16-year-old Luke Littler is through to the last 16 at the World Darts Championship. In his commanding 4:1 victory over Matt Campbell, "The Nuke" once again played like an old hand, giving his Canadian opponent no chance.
The English darts prodigy took each of the first two sets by nil. Littler was somewhat fortunate to take the third set and even Campbell's only set win did not put Littler off course for the last 16. After the young star's next win, there were emotional scenes away from the TV cameras. Littler was greeted 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.
Possible generational duel
"The Nuke" then sat down casually at the press conference, answering the many questions from the journalists in a rather tight-lipped manner rather than going on and on. But not out of arrogance, but rather out of shyness, which makes the 16-year-old even more likeable. "All in all, that was a good performance. I have absolutely 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 priced higher than the teenager by the bookmakers.
Littler was also asked whether he had had time to reflect on his achievements during the Christmas break. "To be honest, I was on the Xbox the whole time," commented the young Englishman without beating around the bush. After his second-round victory, Littler had announced that he wanted to swap the Xbox for the training board over the holidays.
But he made it through to the next round without any special preparation. In the round of 16, Littler will face either Jim Williams, who knocked 2020 and 2022 World Champion Peter Wright out of the tournament, or Raymond van Barneveld. A clash with the Dutch darts legend would be the generational duel par excellence: "Barney" is 40 years older than Littler.
"I'd be over the moon to play Raymond," said the teenager when asked about his next possible opponent on December 30.
Van Gerwen tones: "Bring me Bunting"
Top stars Michael van Gerwen and reigning champion Michael Smith also recorded their next victories. "Mighty Mike", as van Gerwen is known, had no problems at all in his clear 4:0 win over his weak compatriot Richard Veenstra.
From the round of 16 onwards, much tougher 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 this afternoon (from 13:45, 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 produced one of the greatest comebacks in the history of this tournament against Dimitri Van den Bergh, but I'd rather play Bunting," added "MvG" at the press conference afterwards.
Defending champion Michael Smith, on the other hand, is not a hot contender for the title. Although the "Bully Boy" won 4:1 against the Latvian Madars Razma, he only showed a world champion performance in the last round. Outsider Razma had previously missed several chances to change the direction of the match.
On today's eleventh day of the tournament, however, two Germans are hoping for the big win: after the elimination of Martin Schindler and Gabriel Clemens yesterday afternoon, the aim is to keep at least one German in the tournament. Florian Hempel is just as much an outsider against Bunting as Ricardo Pietreczko is against top favorite Luke Humphries in the evening (approx. 21:15, Sport1/Dazn).
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Source: www.ntv.de
