Luke Littler withdraws from Hungarian Darts Trophy 2024

Unfortunately for Hungarian fans, Luke Littler will not be on display in Budapest this weekend. The 17-year-old teenage sensation has decided to withdraw from the 2024 Hungarian Darts Trophy.

The Hungarian capital will host the 11th Euro Tour tournament of this season this weekend. Littler managed to win the Euro Tour tournaments in the Belgian town of Wieze and the Austrian town of Premstätten earlier this year, but then did not participate in the tournaments in Rosmalen (Netherlands) and Leverkusen (Germany).

Littler chose to take a weekend off. After all, there are plenty of tournaments scheduled over the next few weeks. On Sept. 24-25 and Oct. 1-3, Players Championship tournaments will be played again, while in between the Swiss Darts Trophy will take place in Basel. Also, from Oct. 7 to 13, the World Grand Prix will be played, where Littler will try to win his first ranking major.

In addition to Littler, Ryan Joyce has also opted out of the Hungarian Darts Trophy, while Leighton Bennett remains suspended for the time being due to match-fixing investigations. Alan Soutar, Niels Zonneveld and Jim Williams have been called up to replace the trio.

The Hungarian Darts Trophy is scheduled to take place for the fourth time. In 2021, Gerwyn Price managed to win the very first edition by beating Michael Smith 8-2 in the final. A year later, the title went to Joe Cullen, who was too strong for William O'Connor in a surprising 8-2 final. In 2023, Dave Chisnall went on to take the title by knocking off Luke Humphries in the final.