Nineteen-year-old world champion Luke Littler faced a premature exit at the World Grand Prix in Leicester, suffering a surprise first-round defeat to Luke Woodhouse. Littler, attempting to rebound from a quarter-final loss to Jonny Clayton at the World Series of Darts Finals, started strongly by taking the opening set. However, his form dipped significantly thereafter, and he managed only an 82.41 average throughout the best-of-three match. Woodhouse capitalized on the opportunity, leveling the score before securing a 3-1 victory in the deciding set with a clinical 75 checkout. Littler, 19, had been looking to bounce back from his quarter-final exit to Jonny Clayton at the World Series of Darts Finals just over a week ago.
Woodhouse now advances to the last 16, where he will face 2022 runner-up Nathan Aspinall, who managed a tight 2-1 win over debutant Kevin Doets. The tournament also saw the exit of six-time champion Michael van Gerwen, who surrendered five of the final six legs to 2024 semi-finalist Ryan Joyce in a 2-1 defeat. Joyce will proceed to meet Danny Noppert, following the Dutchman’s 2-1 victory over Germany’s Niko Springer.
In other matches, Gerwyn Price demonstrated dominant form by conceding only a single leg in his 2-0 win over Poland’s Sebastian Bialecki. The Welshman is set to face Ross Smith, who mounted a comeback to overcome Scotland’s Cameron Menzies 2-1. Additionally, Jonny Clayton progressed after a narrow 2-1 win against Krzysztof Ratajski. Clayton is scheduled to play Wessel Nijman in the next round, after the Dutchman recorded a straight-sets victory against 2018 world champion Rob Cross.
