Darts world champion Luke Littler has put on the crown at the UK Open in the English Minehead and dismantled his opponent.
The 18-year-old defeated his compatriot James Wade (41) 11-2 and already won his fifth major title in the seventh finale. With the triumph, he replaced Wade as the youngest winner of the tournament, who won the tournament at the age of 25 in 2008.
Littler, who fought the winning of £ 110,000 with the victory, gave his opponent no chance from the start, broke the record (39) for most 180s over the entire tournament early in the game. In the end it was nine in the final and 48 in total.
Wade had previously provided a big surprise and, in addition to his strong sporting performance, with a strange action for conversation. Before he threw the number one in the world from the tournament in the quarter -finals in the quarter -finals, he had licked his opponent on the throat when he was greeted.
Humphries refused handshake – Springer writes history
This and other smaller unsportsmanlike are said to have so angry the world champion of 2024 that he in the end he refused Wade. For the time being, the later finalist did not harm it: in the preliminary round, he confidently cleared Josh Rock with 11-2.
Two German players also caused a sensation at the 23rd edition of the tournament. Darts talent Niko Springer wrote at the start of the UK Open German Darts story.
In the 6-2 victory against the Norwegian Cor Dekker, the “Meenzer Bub” played 115.92 points on average and thus set up the second highest average in tournament history and a German TV, stage and major record. Only the legend Phil Taylor was even better with the prestigious major in Minehead 2010 (118.66). Springer failed in the third round.
German number one Martin Schindler had a curious mishap at his round of 16: one of his darts crashed into the board and landed in the shoe of the 28-year-old. He didn’t hurt himself.