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Luke Littler beat defending champion Luke Humphries in the final of the New Zealand Darts Masters to clinch an Antipodean double after his success in Australia last week.
The 18-year-old – the reigning world and World Matchplay champion – averaged 115 to cruise past Humphries 8-4 in the final, edging in front in their career head-to-head 8-7 after a fourth-straight success against the world No 1.
Littler also made light work of Mike De Decker and Gerwyn Price in the quarter-finals and semis respectively on Saturday, dropping only two legs in each contest.
He threatened to swat aside Humphries in the final as well, cruising through the opening three legs, only for missed darts at double in both of the next two to help his opponent pull things back to 3-2.
But Littler would again rattle off three legs in a row against the 2025 Premier League champion to move 6-3 clear before eventually wrapping up a 8-4 victory.
‘The Nuke’ had been sloppy on the opening day’s action on Friday, failing to land a single maximum in his 6-4 win over Mark Cleaver, but he more than made up for that on Saturday with 15 180s to his name, including seven in the final.
Humphries had booked his place in the final with a 6-2 win over Australia’s Damon Heta in the quarter-finals and then a 7-4 success against Chris Dobey, who had earlier beaten Stephen Bunting 6-3 in the opening match of the evening.
Luke Humphries overcame Damon Heta and Chris Dobey to reach the final but couldn’t get the better of Luke Littler
In one of the games of the night, Price defeated Josh Rock 6-5 in a thrilling last-eight clash that went down to the wire.
Attention now turns to the tournament finals in Amsterdam from September 12-14, with Littler the defending champion after beating Michael Smith 11-4 in last year’s final.
New Zealand Darts Masters – Saturday’s results
Final (best of 15 legs)
Luke Littler 8-4 Luke Humphries
Semi-finals (best of 13 legs)
Luke Humphries 7-4 Chris Dobey
Luke Littler 7-2 Gerwyn Price
Quarter-finals (best of 11 legs)
Chris Dobey 6-3 Stephen Bunting
Luke Humphries 6-2 Damon Heta
Gerwyn Price 6-5 Josh Rock
Luke Littler 6-2 Mike De Decker
Live darts is back on Sky Sports from October 6-12 as the BoyleSports World Grand Prix is held in Leicester.
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