Luke Littler has qualified for the last sixteen of the
World Darts Championship. The 16-year-old World Championship debutant defeated Canadian
Matt Campbell 4-1 in the third round.
Littler averaged over 97 in another impressive display. "It's an overall good performance. It's not like the first round but I've said I can win with the lowest average of the tournament, I'd just be happy to get through."
Littler could meet Raymond van Barneveld in the fourth round, although the latter must first see off Peter Wright's conqueror, Jim Williams. On who he'd prefer? "Obviously Raymond. It'd be unbelievable to play him," answers Littler. "The crowd will have to pick and choose who the want on their side but yeah, I'd be happy to play Raymond. But, Jim's in good form as well."
'The Nuke' was a little less exuberant on stage than usual. "That's what I said to myself leading up to the game. If you do go 2-0 up, which I did, Matt didn't win a leg in the first two sets. So I just said to myself, 'calm down you still got another two sets to play.'"
Littler is already being tipped by many people as a future world champion, could it come as soon as this year? "I'd love to go a few more games," he admits. "The prize money in this tournament is an extra bonus for me now as well."