Littler and Humphries sail through before Van Barneveld takes hard-fought win over Pietreczko to final day at Swiss Darts Trophy

Luke Littler, Luke Humphries and Raymond van Barneveld have advanced to the last sixteen at the 2024 Swiss Darts Trophy.

On Sunday we are now going to see a clash between Luke Humphries and Luke Littler, after both Englishmen comfortably made it through the second round. Humphries recorded a 6-2 victory over Richard Veenstra with an average of 100.70.

The first leg went to Veenstra, but then Humphries took over the lead with a 13-darter and a 14-darter. Humphries surrendered his break right away, but also broke right back with an 11-darter in the fifth leg. The world number one did not relinquish that lead after that. A 14-darter brought 'Cool Hand Luke' to 4-2, before it became 5-2 with a 13-darter. Veenstra had four chances in the eighth leg to stay in the match, but could not find the double. Humphries then managed to decide the match with an 84 finish.

Littler won 6-3 over Swiss qualifier Bruno Stöckli, although it was a much closer game than expected. That was mostly due to Stöckli, who also played a lot better than in the match in which he won 6-3 over Krzysztof Ratajski.

Stöckli broke Littler in the first leg, but the next two legs both went to the 17-year-old Englishman. For a moment the Swiss fans in attendance could hope for a shock when Stöckli then managed to take a 3-2 lead with a 104 finish and a 16-darter. The Swiss then allowed himself to start the sixth leg, but missed the bullseye to double the lead. Littler threw out 25 for the equalizer and then took over the lead with a fine 145 finish. Littler then closed with a 16-darter and an 11-darter for a 6-3 win over Stöckli.

With a 6-5 victory over Pietreczko, 'Barney' reached the final day of a Euro Tour tournament for the second time this season. The match began with a remarkable moment. In the first leg, Pietreczko threw a score of 80 by hitting double 10 with his third dart and 'Pikachu' thought he had the leg in. However, the German was not on 80 but on 90 and so he left a score of ten. Both players then missed quite a few darts on the double before Van Barneveld managed to secure the first leg via a 21-darter.

Van Barneveld then missed two chances to break Pietreczko, before his opponent equalized with a 59 finish. A 15-darter then brought Van Barneveld back into the lead before he broke Pietreczko via double 14. The 57-year-old Dutch native then produced a good leg of his own and extended the lead to 4-1 with a 13-darter. Pietreczko then fired a 161 finish into the board out of nowhere, and then even came back to 4-3 with a 92 finish after Van Barneveld left two darts on the double unused.

Pietreczko then evened the score after a 112 finish in the eighth leg. Both men then held their own leg, requiring a decisive 11th leg to determine a winner. In the leg-decider, Van Barneveld was soon the better scoring, and with a 17-darter the five-time world champion pulled out the win.