09/08/2024

"Visiting new places and playing in front of new crowds": Luke Littler embracing World Series challenge Down Under

Luke Littler had a successful debut at the Australian Darts Masters on Friday. In his first ever match on Australian soil, "The Nuke" was a size too strong for Rob Modra, 6-2.

For now, the 17-year-old Englishman is the most successful player at the 2024 World Series. Just days before his seventeenth birthday, he won January's Bahrain Darts Masters, while Littler also claimed the title at the Poland Darts Masters in June.

In between, he lost in the final of the Dutch Darts Masters to Michael van Gerwen, who is missing from Australia due to his recently undergoing dental surgery. We have seen Littler's opponent Rob Modra at the World Series in the distant past. He competed at the Auckland Darts Masters in 2015 and 2017.

Luke Littler lethal before Peter Wright breezes past Simon Whitlock at Australian Darts Masters

Modra could only keep up with his young opponent in the beginning of the match. After four legs the score was 2-2, but then Littler definitely distanced himself from his Australian opponent. He broke his opponent in the sixth leg with an 84 finish and then made it 5-2 with a 16-darter. Littler then sealed the match with a 14-darter in the eighth leg.

His average of 90.68 shows that there is room for improvement for Littler for the final day of this tournament. "I’m just glad to drag myself over the line tonight, and hopefully I can improve tomorrow," he told to PDC.tv. "Rob missed some crucial darts at double and it could have gone either way, but thankfully I took my chances.

For Littler, Australia is another place where he may show his skills for the first time, after the PDC had already invited him to the World Series tournaments in Bahrain, the Netherlands and the United States, among others, earlier this year. ''I’m really enjoying playing in the World Series, visiting new places and playing in front of new crowds!" Littler said.

The reigning Premier League champion will take on Michael Smith in the quarterfinals on Saturday. Smith won 6-2 over Stuart Coburn in his opening match of the Australian Darts Masters.