Back-to-back world champion Luke Littler got off to a winning start at the Bahrain Darts Masters with a dominant 6-1 win over Paul Lim, while Luke Humphries and Jerwin Price also progressed to the quarter-finals.
In his first appearance since successfully retaining the Sid Waddell Trophy at Alexandra Palace on January 3, where he extended his lead as world No. 1, Littler brushed aside a fan favorite who is 53 years his senior.
Littler – who won his first World Series of Darts title at the event in 2024 – fired a 106.5 average and scored two ton-plus finishes during the one-sided contest, where he delivered the first ‘Big Fish’ checkout of the tournament and converted six of his eight double attempts.
Luke Littler has advanced to the quarter-finals of the Bahrain Darts Masters
Nuke now faces a quarter-final showdown with Price, who defeated Littler at the same stage in last year’s competition, after ‘The Iceman’ defeated fan favorite Motomu Sakai 6-4.
World Championship runner-up Gian van Venn defeated Man Lok Leung 6-2 and Humphries knocked out Abdullah Said flat-footed for the third year in a row, while Michael van Gerwen, defending champion Stephen Bunting, Danny Noppert and Nathan Aspinall also reached the last 16.
Littler and Humphreys produce statement performances
Lim missed the chance to break Littler in the first match but scored a 74 finish in the next level, before ‘The Nuke’ took control following his sensational 170 checkout in the third, smashing the veteran in the fourth game with 11 darts.
The 18-year-old added 121 checkouts to advance and didn’t miss a dart in the doubles until his match-winning match, where he sealed a 14-dart victory to set up a quarter-final meeting with Price on Friday.
Littler only went down on one leg during his impressive win over Paul Lima
Price needed a 107 finish to steal a poor opening game against Sakai, who repeatedly broke and outplayed the Welshman, but saw a poor finish derail his hopes of a famous victory.
Van Veen also took advantage of Leung’s willful scoring to advance to the last 16, coming back from 2-1 down to fend off five straight matches to set up an all-Dutch quarter-final with Noppert.
Bahrain’s Bassem Mahmood won his first match in the competition but was thrashed 6-1 by Noppert, while fellow home favorite Saed had just one dart in the doubles in a straight-leg loss to Humphreys.
More to come…
Bahrain Darts Masters: Schedule for Friday
Quarterfinals (best of 11 games) – from 4:15 p.m
Luke Littler vs. Gervin Price
Michael van Gerwen vs Stephen Bunting
Luke Humphries v Nathan Aspinall
Gian van Veen v Danny Noppert
Semi-Finals – Best of 13 games
Littler/Price v Van Gerwen/Bunting
Humphreys/Aspinall vs. Van Venn/Noppert
Final – Best of 15 games
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