Luke Littler, 17, defeated Michael van Gerwen 7–3 at Alexandra Palace, London, to win his first PDC World Darts Championship title.
The teenager takes the record of the competition’s youngest ever winner, which had been held by his opponent Van Gerwen, who was 24 years and nine months when he won his first title in 2014.
In 2024, Littler won the Grand Slam of Darts in November, the World Series Finals in September and the Premier League Darts in May, and he has now added his first World Championship title.
Littler raced into a 4-0 lead inside 36 minutes in a ruthless display, with Van Gerwen twice busting his score in the opening four sets.
Van Gerwen took the fifth set, but Littler won a tight sixth to give himself a 5-1 lead. Van Gerwen again reduced the deficit as he took the seventh, but Littler whitewashed the eighth set, again enjoying huge success on the double 10 throughout, to leave himself one set away from victory.
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Van Gerwen remained in the contest after winning the ninth set, but Littler was not to be denied. The teenager twice missed the double 16 before success on the third attempt secured victory.
An emotional Littler was pictured in tears at the end as he celebrated his victory.
Littler — No 4 seed for the tournament — lost last year’s World Championship final 7-4 to first-time winner Luke Humphries, a match which he had led 4-2 before losing five successive sets. The teenager was the tournament favourite this year after Humphries lost 4–1 to Peter Wright in the fourth round.
In late 2023, Littler was ranked 164 and won the PDC world youth title with victory over Gian van Veen before taking the senior tournament by storm with a scintillating run to the final and he has since established himself as a household name.
He won 10 titles in his debut year as a professional, amassed more than £1million ($1.24m) in prize money and was named BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year.
In Littler’s path to the final this year he defeated Ryan Meikle, Ian White, Ryan Joyce, Nathan Aspinall and Stephen Bunting.
Third seed Van Gerwen had been aiming to win his fourth World Championship and his first since 2019, having also won the tournament in 2014 and 2017.
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(Top image: James Fearn/Getty Images)
