"It'd be a good thing to beat him in his own backyard" - Luke Littler readies himself for World Championship rematch with Michael van Gerwen

The Dutch Darts Masters, the second tournament of the World Series of Darts 2025, takes place in Den Bosch this weekend. Luke Littler has already started this tournament well, 'The Nuke' defeated Dimitri Van den Bergh 6-4 in his opening match and will now take on Michael van Gerwen later tonight in the quarterfinals, in what will be a replay of the 2025 PDC World Darts Championship final.

Littler clocked off against Van den Bergh with an impressive average of 101.07. "I wanted to go three or four up, but Dimi played well to get back to 2-2," Littler assesses to the media post-match, well aware of what awaits in the quarter-finals. "As soon as that winning went in I knew what was coming tomorrow, but let's expect the worst."

As mentioned, that next match comes against none other than Michael van Gerwen in his homeland. "Obviously I'd like to get another win and progress to the semi-final, but I think Michael will be thinking that he wants revenge, especially in his backyard," he previews. "It'd be a good thing to beat him in his own backyard, winning that game and guaranteeing myself in the semi-final."

The Littler, who turned 18 this week, had also noticed that Van den Bergh took to the stage for the first time with a different walk-on song. The Belgian no longer entered to the tones of Pharrell Williams' 'Happy,' but rather to David Guetta's 'Play Hard.' "I think it's good for us players that he's not there dancing around," laughs Littler. "So we get to walk on quicker!"

Littler will be in action next week at the Winmau World Masters and the week after that the Premier League Darts begins. "These World Series tournaments are obviously fun, but I look at them nostly as build up tournaments for the Premier League Darts," Littler concluded.