16-Year-Old Luke Littler Defeated in World Darts Championship Final
Luke Littler, the teenager who took the world of darts by storm in recent weeks by becoming the youngest to ever reach the World Darts Championship final, came up short of capping off perhaps the greatest underdog run in the history of the sport.
Littler, 16, lost 7-4 in the final round Wednesday night to World No. 1 Luke Humphries, in an instant classic that saw Humphries needing a dramatic comeback to claim the 2024 championship.
"I could not put into words how great this feels," Humphries, 28, said after the match, according to BBC. "In the back of my mind throughout today, I was thinking, 'Get this one now because he's going to dominate world darts soon.’ He's an incredible player. When I was on the brink of winning there, he was relentless.”
Hopes were high for Littler coming into the final round Wednesday. Sky Sports' pre-match panel not only debated whether the teenager could win the 2024 championship over Humphries, but asked how many he’d go on to win throughout his professional career.
“We need to embrace it,” Sky Sports darts analyst Wayne Murdle, a former five-time world semi-finalist himself, said about the global sensation Littler sparked in recent weeks.
Littler won the world youth championship in 2023 but still came into the tournament a relative unknown, ranked No. 164 in the world. But in the matter of weeks, the Xbox-playing, daily pizza-eating teenager set the darts world on fire and made international headlines — a rarity for darts — as he began taking down a murder’s row of opponents.
In the opening round, Littler whitewashed former world champion Christian Kist in a shocking upset. In the second round, he defeated the 2023 UK Champion Andrew Gilding. In the third, Littler cruised to a breezy 4-1 win over Matt Campbell, a five-year pro, before going on to take down his childhood idol and five-time world champion Raymond van Barneveld to reach the quarterfinals.
Littler then defeated veteran Brendan Dolan before knocking off another former world champion, Rob Cross, to reach the finals against Humphries.
Littler’s dominance on the world stage was as equally embraced as his calm approach, telling reporters throughout the tournament that he was preparing for each match like he would any other: eating his daily omelet beforehand and simply practicing.
“You will never see a 16-year-old kid as down to earth as him — he’s just something else,” Humphries said after the final, according to the Associated Press. “He is one of the best players in the world, no doubt about that.”
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Littler looked poised to cap off his Cinderella story midway through his match with Humphries, jumping out to an early 4-2 set lead.
He nearly took a 5-2 set lead but narrowly missed a shot that would’ve closed out the set. Instead, Humphries gained the advantage and stole it back to make it 4-3. That shot turned out to be the turning point in the match as Humphries, the pre-tournament favorite who goes by the nickname “Cool Hand Luke,” gathered himself and rallied to win five sets in a row in the first-to-seven matchup.
Despite the loss, the teenager’s second-place finish still netted him £200,000 (about $250,000) and saw his world ranking skyrocket from No. 164 to No. 32. After the final, The Guardianreported the English teenager also accepted an offer to play in the darts Premier League, the top seasonal darts competition.
“I’m happy,” Littler said after the final, according to the Associated Press. “Top 32, runner-up on my debut. Unbelievable.”
