18-year-old Luke Littler defended his title at the Darts World Championship in an impressive manner on Saturday evening. In the final, Littler clearly beat the Dutchman Gian van Veen 7-1 in sets.
In his third final appearance in London’s “Ally Pally”, Littler won the title for the second time. Only Phil Taylor, Adrian Lewis and Gary Anderson had previously managed to defend their title at the PDC World Darts Association. Littler also showed an outstanding performance in the final, was not influenced by an initial dip in performance and won overwhelmingly.
“It feels great,” Littler cheered in an interview with Sky Sports and added: “The first time was so nice that I had to do it twice.” The prize money, he also emphasized, was “absolutely life-changing.” In addition to the Sid Wadell Trophy, Littler will receive record prize money of one million pounds.
“Proud” van Veen is annoyed about missed opportunities
European champion and junior world champion van Veen will also be happy with his second place after initial disappointment. The 23-year-old was in the final for the first time and moved up to third place in the world rankings by reaching the final. But he also had no chance against Littler in this form.
“I wanted to give Luke a balanced match today, but I didn’t manage to do that. I played okay, but didn’t take advantage of my chances,” said van Veen contritely. “But: I’m number three in the world, the new number one in the Netherlands, I’m proud of that.” Van Veen replaced former dominator Michael van Gerwen as the highest-ranked Dutch darts professional after 13 years.
No chance against the outstanding Littler: Gian van Veen
Littler makes a mistake at the start – and then gets going
The first sentence already offered the spectators a spectacle. Littler got into the game a little better and scored well, while van Veen had difficulties and consequently conceded a break. But because Littler didn’t use several set darts, van Veen got the chance to come back.
“The Giant” took advantage of this and won the first set without even coming close to his previous tournament performances. Littler showed an early reaction to his missed opportunities and was visibly annoyed.
| Sentence | Stand (legs in brackets) | Average Littler | Average van Veen |
|---|---|---|---|
1 | 0:1 (2:3) | 102.13 | 91.48 |
2 | 1:1 (3:2) | 109.79 | 108.65 |
3 | 2:1 (3:1) | 115.68 | 102.00 |
4 | 3:1 (3:0) | 100.20 | 100.15 |
5 | 4:1 (3:1) | 107.95 | 101.44 |
6 | 5:1 (3:0) | 104.86 | 99.77 |
7 | 6:1 (3:0) | 109.98 | 107.46 |
8 | 7:1 (3:1) | 98.79 | 92.83 |
| In total | 7:1 | 106.02 | 99.94 |
However, the young Englishman quickly managed to convert this anger into improved performance. Van Veen also improved a bit, but Littler played himself into a frenzy. “The Nuke” narrowly took the second set 3:2. In the third round, Littler went one better and secured set three with an outstanding three-dart average of over 115 points. For the first time, emotions also broke out, Littler celebrated with lots of gestures.
Gian van Veen’s frustration
As in his semi-final against compatriot Ryan Searle, which Littler won 6-1, Littler turned up the heat after being 0-1 down. Sets four and five also went to the favorite, who hardly allowed his opponent to come close to winning a leg thanks to good scoring. Even a brief wasp attack on stage didn’t faze the 18-year-old.
Luke Littler is chased by a wasp at the Darts World Cup final
When Littler left something behind, like at the beginning of the sixth set, van Veen was unable to strike: after two missed leg darts, the young Dutchman shook his head in annoyance, it was a fitting reaction: Littler seemed untouchable. Van Veen didn’t play badly, his numbers would have looked good against almost any other opponent at this World Cup – but it wasn’t enough against the world number one. Set six also went to Littler.
Blood on the board – van Veen makes a mistake at checkout
After the sixth set, the board was replaced because some blood had gotten on the window – van Veen had scratched his little finger with his own dart and touched the board with the bleeding wound. The opponents used the resulting break for a short conversation, during which both smiled briefly.
Whatever they discussed: van Veen did well with the short break, “The Giant” clearly improved his scoring. Unlike in the tournament so far, he couldn’t rely on his double odds, missed several checkout chances and lost round seven.
Van Veen secured his first leg win in the final eighth set after losing ten legs. But Littler was undeterred and secured his title defense with a high finish. As relaxed and relaxed as the teenager appeared during the game, Littler also showed his relief after the victory and had tears in his eyes during the victory ceremony.