Luke Littler survived an early scare against Man-Lok Leung to advance to the quarter-finals of the Bahrain Darts Masters. 16-year-old Littler, who lost in the final of the World Darts Championship earlier this month, would bank £20,000 in prize money if he goes all the way in the Middle East.
The winnings would be welcomed by ‘The Nuke’, who saw approximately £84,000 of his £200,000 prize pot deducted by the taxman after finishing runner-up at the Alexandra Palace, where Luke Humphries sealed his maiden world title with a 7-4 victory.
Entry to this season’s Premier League Darts, as well as a number of other lucrative tournaments, will make Littler one of the wealthiest players on tour if he continues performing well.
He faced Hong Kong’s Man-Lok Leung in his first match since the world championship, having admitted to not picking up a dart between his defeat to Humphries and arriving Bahrain.
And early signs of rust were obvious as Leung took a two-leg lead, much to the crowd’s surprise. The 24-year-old could even have gone three up, but for a missed opportunity which served as a catalyst for Littler’s rip-roaring comeback.
As he found the kind of rhythm that toppled a sequence of seasoned opponents at Ally Pally – including Raymond van Barneveld and Rob Cross – Littler took out 151 and 136 checkouts in consecutive legs to put Leung under the cosh.
Littler won five legs on the spin before seeing out a 6-3 victory and advancing to the last eight, sealing it with another impressive 120 checkout. The darts prodigy was lukewarm on the doubles against Leung, an element of his game which will have to improve significantly if he is to get past Nathan Aspinall in the next round.
The latter stages of the Bahrain Darts Masters will unfold on Friday. Littler has already guaranteed himself £2,500 by making it to the quarters, while a win over Aspinall would see him take home at least £5,000 for reaching the semi-finals.
The victor in the Middle East will bank a tidy £20,000, leaving £10,000 for the runner-up. In any case, Littler is scheduled to return to England on Saturday, leaving plenty of time for preparation ahead of the Dutch Darts Masters later this month.
A gruelling Premier League schedule will also begin on February 1 in Cardiff. The 17-week competition is set to pit Littler against the world’s finest darts players, including Humphries, giving him a shot to avenge his Ally Pally defeat.
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