Luke Littler picked up his seventh senior PDC title on Wednesday, after defeating Wessel Nijman 8-6 in the final of Players Championship Fifteen, as the Pro Tour triple header commenced at the Marshall Arena, Milton Keynes.
Premier League Champion, Littler, who was victorious at the opening Players Championship Event of 2024, went all the way once again, as he reached the final firstly by recording victories against Boris Krcmar, Pascal Rupprecht, Jonny Clayton, Rhys Griffin, Krzysztof Ratajski and Chris Dobey, to set up a clash with Nijman.
The battle of the young warriors had been held several times previously on the Winmau Development Tour and , more recently, the European Tour, where surprisingly it was Nijman who had the edge.
The final began with Littler racing into a 2-0 lead, with winning legs coming in 18 and 13 darts respectively, before Nijman hit back and stormed in front by winning four straight legs in a total of 61 darts to move 4-2 ahead and halfway to victory.
Littler then struck back, winning back-to-back legs in 13 and 11 darts respectively, to square the tie up at 4 apiece, before there was a run of four straight breaks of throw between the pair to make it 6-6 and a best of three contest.
However, ‘The Nuke’ showed his recently gained experience in senior finals, by winning the following two legs and sealed the victory in Leg 14 with a 17 darter to pick up a second Players Championship title of the year and become the first player to win multiple Pro Tour titles in 2024.
Nijman, who picked up three Development Tour titles last weekend, continued his impressive run of form by reaching his first senior final within the PDC, with the Dutchman recording victories on the day against Christian Kist, Gian Van Veen, Graham Hall, Darren Beveridge, Gary Anderson ( the best of the ‘Old Guard’) and Damon Heta, before being denied by ‘The Nuke’.
Elsewhere, there were Quarter Final runs foranother member of the younger generation, Belgium’s Mike De Decker, and Switzerland’s Stefan Bellmont, with the Swiss reaching a second Pro Tour Quarter Final of 2024.
The Older guard including the likes of Gerwyn Price, Peter Wright and Stephen Bunting were amongst the high profile first round casualties.
The PDC Pro Tour triple header continues on Thursday with Players Championship Sixteen taking place in Milton Keynes, with the 128 players returning to compete for a further £125,000 in prize money, with play beginning at 13:00 BST.
Play will be broadcasted across four streaming boards on PDC.TV and various bookmaker websites worldwide, with all live scores and results on tv.dartconnect.com.
Players Championship 15
Last 16
Stefan Bellmont 6-4 Cameron Menzies
Damon Heta 6-3 Lee Evans
Wessel Nijman 6-2 Darren Beveridge
Gary Anderson 6-4 Raymond Van Barneveld
Luke Littler 6-4 Rhys Griffin
Krzysztof Ratajski 6-4 Alan Soutar
Chris Dobey 6-4 Luke Humphries
Mike De Decker 6-3 Danny Noppert
Quarter Finals
Damon Heta 6-1 Stefan Bellmont
Wessel Nijman 6-5 Gary Anderson
Luke Littler 6-4 Krzysztof Ratajski
Chris Dobey 6-1 Mike De Decker
Semi Finals
Wessel Nijman 7-5 Damon Heta
Luke Littler 7-2 Chris Dobey
Final
Luke Littler 8-6 Wessel Nijman
—–ENDS—-
Images: PDC
