Luke Littler celebrated his seventh PDC title of 2024 after beating Wessel Nijman in the Players Championship 15 final; Littler was making his first appearance since losing to Michael van Gerwen at the World Matchplay earlier this month
Wednesday 31 July 2024 21:07, UK
Luke Littler bounced back from his first-round exit at the Betfred World Matchplay to claim a seventh PDC title of the year at Players Championship 15 in Milton Keynes.
Littler made a terrific start to this week's treble-header in Milton Keynes by registering his seventh PDC title of the year, with the teenager also becoming the first player to win multiple Players Championship titles in 2024.
The 17-year-old won the year's opening Players Championship event back in February, which sparked a remarkable sequence of 14 different winners from as many events, but has now ended that run by beating Dutchman Wessel Nijman 8-6 in a fascinating final.
"I know what Wessel is capable of," said Littler, who boasted a tournament average of 100.3 across his seven matches. "I've seen him dominate the last weekend of the Development Tour, but it was a good final, and I'm happy to be the only player with two [Players Championship] titles this year!
"I've not really picked up a dart since the World Matchplay, so to come here and win is even better. I've got to back myself to win almost everything. With the standard of the other players I probably can't do that, but I'd love to win another major title this year."
Littler, making his first appearance since his early exit to Michael van Gerwen in Blackpool - began his campaign with consecutive ton-plus averages in wins over Boris Krcmar and Pascal Rupprecht.
The Warrington wonderkid then dispatched Jonny Clayton to book his place in the last 16, before closing out a brace of 6-4 victories against Rhys Griffin and Krzysztof Ratajski to reach the last four.
Littler continued his charge with a crushing 7-2 success against his stablemate Chris Dobey in the semi-finals, averaging 103 to set up a showdown against Nijman, as two of the sport's most exciting talents locked horns.
Trailing 2-0, Nijman reeled off four straight legs - including a spectacular 160 checkout - to seize the initiative, only for Littler to respond with legs of 13 and 11 darts to restore parity at four apiece.
This was followed by a run of four successive breaks of throw, although Nijman was left to rue missing two darts for a 7-5 lead, as Littler stole a march in the closing stages to triumph.
Nijman, who won a hat-trick of Development Tour titles at the Marshall Arena last weekend, produced a quartet of ton-topping averages to race through to the last eight, overcoming Christian Kist, Gian van Veen, Graham Hall and Darren Beveridge.
The 24-year-old then edged out Gary Anderson in a compelling quarter-final clash, then defied a 104 average from Damon Heta to emerge through a high-quality last-four tussle.
Anderson had earlier produced an astronomical 123.83 average in his third-round demolition of Andrew Gilding, reeling off legs of 11, 12, 12, 13, 13 and 13 darts to cap off an inspired display.
World champion Luke Humphries - fresh from his World Matchplay heroics - lost in the last-16 to Dobey, while five-time world champion Raymond van Barneveld also landed a hat-trick of ton-plus averages before falling to Anderson in the last-16.
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