Luke Littler defeated Michael van Gerwen after a show of force in the final of the World Darts Championship and became the youngest world champion in history.
Tears welled up in Luke Littler’s eyes and the child prodigy shook his head in disbelief.
The 17-year-old became the youngest world champion in history after a demonstration of power in the dream final of the 2025 Darts World Cup. Littler won the one-sided showdown at Alexandra Palace in London against former dominator Michael van Gerwen with 7:3 sets.
“I can’t believe it, honestly, I just can’t believe it. Everyone dreams of winning this trophy,” said Littler after his triumph. Van Gerwen said approvingly: “Every 17 years a champion is born, Luke is one of them.”
The spectacle many fans wanted did not materialize, and that was mainly due to van Gerwen. The three-time world champion made a false start after major problems on the doubles fields and quickly found himself 0:4 behind, and the match seemed to have been decided early on. Littler stayed cool, hardly suffered any phases of weakness and stormed unstoppably to triumph against his astonished rival.
The teenager averaged a strong 102.73 points on the way to his fourth major title, van Gerwen held on in his seventh World Cup final with 100.69 points, but only hit 14 of his 38 attempts at the doubles. Littler, on the other hand, impressed with a double rate of over 50 percent.
Luke Littler reports from Gerwens Alters-Rekord
18 days before his 18th birthday, Littler not only won the Sid Waddell Trophy, which weighs around 23 kg, for his first world title, he also received the winner’s check for a total of 500,000 pounds in prize money (around 603,000 euros). With a total of 76 180s – twelve of them in the final – “The Nuke” also grabbed the Ballon d’Art for the most maximums during the tournament.
Of all people, Littler replaced his final opponent van Gerwen as the youngest world champion in the history of the Professional Darts Corporation. “Mighty Mike” triumphed for the first time in 2014 at the age of 24 and followed up with further titles in 2017 and 2019.
It is the preliminary climax of a wondrous story that began just over a year ago. At the 2024 World Cup, Littler took the darts world by storm; the then 16-year-old was only stopped by Luke Humphries in the final.
Only the compatriot who failed in the round of 16 at this year’s World Cup is ahead of Littler in the world rankings. Van Gerwen is lurking behind in third place.
Darts World Cup: “Eggs of steel” don’t help MvG
Superlatives like “blockbuster finale” or “giant duel” dominated the headlines before the eagerly awaited duel. “I have balls of steel,” said van Gerwen. But the “Green Machine” had a start to forget. Van Gerwen missed a bunch of darts on the doubles, Littler punished the mistakes coldly and secured sets one, two, three and four.
Van Gerwen fought back. A 132 finish secured the fifth set for the Dutchman. But Littler, who won ten tournaments – including three major titles – in his debut year on the PDC tour, struck back. Van Gerwen fought, but the deficit was too big. Littler achieved victory almost effortlessly and the second match dart was in place.
Source: www.sport.de
