Luke Littler has raised concerns that he may have ‘burnt himself out’ ahead of the Premier League Darts’ opening weekend. The 17-year-old enjoyed another deep run at the Dutch Darts Masters before coming up short in Saturday night’s gripping final against Michael van Gerwen.
After beating Luke Humphries in the quarter-finals and Gerwyn Price in the semis, Littler faced Van Gerwen in a repeat of the Bahrain Darts Masters final earlier this month.
Littler won on that occasion but came up short in Den Bosch, where the Dutchman prevailed 8-6 in front of his home fans. “Hopefully I haven’t burnt myself out for the Premier League next week,” said Littler in the aftermath.
“But I’ll take this as match practice and this goes into my World Series ranking, but I can’t wait to go down to Cardiff next week.”
Littler once again performed at a level well beyond his years in the Netherlands, where he avenged his defeat to Humphries in the World Darts Championship final and outclassed 2021 world champion Price for the second time in the space of a month.
He averaged a staggering 106.71 against Van Gerwen – considerably more than the Dutchman – but couldn’t convert when it mattered most. “I just went leg by leg, hold by hold, I took out 180s and he’d come back with one,” said Littler.
“I wired the 170 and he gets it, throughout the game every hold was unbeliaveble. I put him under pressure but he just wouldn’t miss. The crowd have been amazing, they wanted Michael to win and I get that. Respect to Mike. It went hold by hold and he finally got me in the end.”
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