Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
World number one Luke Leiter fired an impressive nine-darter to book his place in the quarter-finals with an 11-8 win over Nathan Aspinall.
Leiter started the tournament in Blackpool’s Winter Garden with an impressively perfect footing, finishing in double 15.
The Warrington teenager strained his ears to hear the applause of the packed crowd as Englishman Aspinall laughed in disbelief before giving Littler a high five.
Excitement levels rose further in the fourth leg when Littler doubled 15 for a second nine-darter, only for the arrow to land on the wrong side of the wire.
Aspinall turned to the crowd and jokingly offered the arrow to the 19-year-old to see if anyone wanted to give him a game.
But he didn’t let Litter get away and managed to pull himself back to 7-7, only for the defending champion to drop the next three legs.
Aspinall again rallied briefly but when he lost the uppercuts in the 19th leg, Littler managed to clear 52 checks, with an impressive average of 113.68 – the second highest in the tournament’s history – and a total of 14 180s.
“The nine darters just happened. These guys (the crowd) were grumbling at me at first and then they started cheering me on!” Littler told Sky Sports.
“It felt amazing and it was the best game Nathan and I have ever played – it never ends with Nathan because he never gives up.
“That’s two incredible performances from myself here. Hopefully I can lift the title again, but I just have to focus on playing next.”
Littler will play the winner of Tuesday’s final second-round match between Josh Rock and Stephen Bunting.
Elsewhere, Michael van Gerwen’s finals campaign came to an end as he suffered a 14-12 loss to Dutchman Dirk van Duijvenbode.
Van Gerwen fought back from 8-4 down to level the match at 10-all, but Van Duyvenbode closed out the match.
Scotland’s Gary Anderson also advanced to the last eight after beating Welshman Jonny Clayton 11-7.
