9 Dart Luke Littler Wins Bahrain Masters

Luke Littler became the youngest player to hit a televised nine-darter en route to his maiden PDC title as he won the 2024 Bahrain Masters in Sakhir.

The Nuke Tames Mighty Mike

After holding throw in the opening leg, Littler had chances to break the van Gerwen throw in the next leg but passed up the opportunities before the Dutchman levelled matters.

A first maximum of the match came in leg three for ‘The Nuke’ on his way to a 14 dart hold of throw before another dart to break the Van Gerwen throw was missed, MvG taking out 64 with his last dart in hand.

The holds of throw continued from both players as they entered the break with Littler 4-3 up but the first break came in the first leg after the interval, a poor leg from van Gerwen allowing Littler to break in 17 darts and secure the first two leg lead of the contest.

The three time World Champion responded in fantastic fashion, a 25 tops tops checkout on 105 clinching a 12 dart break back before Littler then missed five darts at double four to make it three breaks of throw on the bounce, as van Gerwen made it five apiece.

A Littler hold made it 6-5 before two trebleless visits from van Gerwen to open up leg 12 handed Littler the initiative, a chance he didn’t pass up to go within one leg of the title and he duly held in 17 darts to win his first World Series of Darts title at the first time of asking, just the latest milestone in the youngster’s meteoric rise to the top table of planet darts.

Route To The Final

Prior to his victory in the final, Littler opened his quarter final win over Nathan Aspinall with a nine dart leg, becoming the youngest player to do so on television in the process.

The match was of a high standard throughout, Littler closing out the match with another ton plus checkout of 116, immediately after each player had won legs in 11 darts.

Not content with that, ‘The Nuke’ defeated former World Champion Gerwyn Price in the semi finals, hitting a 170 checkout for good measure, each player hitting two ton plus checkouts each in just ten legs, Littler winning out a 7-3 victor in the end.

Price had ended the 20 match winning run of recently crowned World Champion Luke Humphries in the quarter finals, Price finally winning on double one to claim a 6-4 win after ‘Cool Hand’ had missed darts to take the match to a deciding leg.

Michael van Gerwen had looked close to his imperious best on his way to the final.

In the quarter finals, he claimed a 6-4 win over Rob Cross, finishing the match with a near 106 average thanks to some impeccable scoring and 6 out of 7 on the outer ring. A 123 checkout in the tenth and final leg securing the only break of throw of the match, the Dutchman having earlier hit a 150 out in the opening leg.

In the semis, he won a last leg decider against last year’s winner Michael Smith, van Gerwen averaging 100 despite only hitting 7 of 25 attempts at double.

2023 World Champion Smith had made the semis thanks to a 6-1 win over Peter Wright in the quarter finals. Smith’s 6 out of 10 on the doubles being the key difference in the contest when compared to Wright’s one out of seven.

Results

2024 Bahrain Darts Masters

Friday January 19

Quarter-Finals

Gerwyn Price 6-4 Luke Humphries

Michael Smith 6-1 Peter Wright

Luke Littler 6-3 Nathan Aspinall – Luke Littler hits nine-dart finish!

Michael van Gerwen 6-4 Rob Cross

Semi-Finals

Luke Littler 7-3 Gerwyn Price

Michael van Gerwen 7-6 Michael Smith

Final

Luke Littler 8-5 Michael van Gerwen