Luke Littler admitted to not being a morning person - like many of his fellow teens

Darts results: Luke Littler beats Dave Chisnall to reach UK Open quarter-finals

By Sporting Life

Darts

Sat March 02, 2024 · 2y ago

Luke Littler admitted to taking time to warm to the task as he came through both UK Open matches on Saturday.

The teen sensation hit a 152 checkout to go with his now customary three-figure average in beating Martin Schindler 10-8 before stepping it up a notch to see off Dave Chisnall 10-5 in a high-quality evening match.

It means he's through to Sunday's latter stages and is now three wins away from a first major PDC title in the event dubbed 'the FA Cup of darts' due to its open-draw format.

"I think if everyone didn’t know, they are going to know now that I am not a morning person," he said following his win against Chisnall.

"I did struggle this morning but I managed to get over the line against Martin.

"After that game, I chilled out, had some food, and I think played better in the evening.

"This morning I didn’t have breakfast and I was feeling sick because there was nothing in my stomach and my adrenalin was going.

"That first game was really hard to get over the line."

LITTLER INTO THE QUARTERS! ☢️

Luke Littler doing Luke Littler things!

'The Nuke' averages 103.38 in a 10-5 win over Dave Chisnall.

📺 https://t.co/D7iTWZMSbj #UKOpenDarts | R6 pic.twitter.com/GtWCxcKdMi
— PDC Darts (@OfficialPDC) March 2, 2024

Asked to ponder what it would feel like to capture his first TV major, Littler added: "It would be unbelievable.

"I have not even thought about it, I will just take it game by game.

"That’s what every player has to do, play the game and if you are lucky enough to win you will go on to the next one."

Martin Lukeman produced the biggest surprise of the last 16 ties played on Saturday evening, producing a ruthless display of finishing to get the better of Gary Anderson 10-5.

There were convincing 10-4 wins for Luke Humphries and Rob Cross against Mervyn King and Keane Barry respectively.

In the final match of the night, Stephen Bunting battled hard to beat a dogged Peter Wright 10-9.

Whereas Wright had thrashed defending champion Andrew Gilding earlier in the day, Bunting had escaped in a final-leg decider and he did it again after Wright pegged him back to level from 9-6 down.

Bunting held firm with the throw, though, pinning tops at the first attempt.