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Luke Littler played a perfect first leg after pulling off a nine-darter in his quarter-final clash victory over Nathan Aspinall.
The 16-year-old – who turns 17 on Sunday – is competing in the Bahrain Darts Masters for the very first time but showed no sign of nerves as he secured an emphatic win against ‘The Asp’.
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Littler came into Bahrain brimming with confidence after reaching the final of the World Darts Championship at Alexandra Palace earlier this month.
However, The Nuke looks perfectly at home on the world stage as he faced a player who is twice his age.
The stunning nine-darter came in his very first leg of the quarter-final clash, a sign of the dominant display that was on the cards.
It meant he made history as the youngest player to hit a nine-darter on a televised tournament.
READ MORE ON LUKE LITTLER
He beats the previous record set by Michael van Gerwen who threw a perfect leg against Raymond van Barneveld at the Masters of Darts in Hengelo at the age of 17 years and 298 days in 2007.
He’s also only the second player to ever hit a world series nine-darter. The other? Phil ‘The Power’ Taylor at the Sydney Masters in 2015
After taking a 2-0 lead, Littler allowed his advantage to slip as Aspinall clawed it back to 2-2, only for The Nuke to restore his lead to 4-2.
He then cruised to a 6-2 victory to set up a semi-final clash with Gerwyn Price on Friday evening.
Speaking of his nine-darter, Littler said: “I’m just glad to win and I think I played really well.
“It’s good to get one [a nine-darter] on TV – the first one of the year goes to me. Hopefully I hit a few more!
“I just take it game by game, if I win, I win, if I lose my next game, it is what it is.”
Littler’s conqueror in the World Championship final, Luke Humphries, fell to a 6-4 defeat to Price, meaning that the 16-year-old will avoid facing the man who denied him the ultimate prize earlier this month.
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