Luke Littler has reached his third consecutive PDC World Championship final and will take on European champion Gian van Veen in what promises to be a sensational finale to the event.
World champion Littler came from a set behind to defeat No. 20 seed Ryan Sale with an impressive performance averaging 105.35 points to defeat his fellow Briton 6-1.
advertise
Meanwhile, Dutchman Van Veen defeated two-time champion Gary Anderson 6-3 in the semifinals, setting a record with both players averaging just under 103 points.
Littler’s success means he has yet to taste defeat ahead of the Alexandra Palace final and extends the 18-year-old’s unbeaten run in major ranking semi-finals to 11 matches.
He becomes the fourth player to reach the PDC World Championship finals three consecutive years after Phil Taylor, Dennis Priestley and Anderson, and could become the fourth player to win the PDC World Championship in consecutive years.
Anderson did it most recently, winning back-to-back in 2015 and 2016.
advertise
Littler told BBC Radio 5 Live: “I’m really happy with tonight – the double, the finish, the big score. It could have been a little better but I’m delighted to be in the final for the third year in a row [at the World Championship].
“I missed some doubles, but I’m happy with about 50 percent. Hopefully we can do more tomorrow.”
Little is too strong for Sale
Sale got off to a strong start in his first semi-final at the World Championships, using his finishing ability to shake off Littler’s average of 10 and 105 darts to take the first set.
advertise
However, the teenager’s scoring was ruthless and proved too much for Sale to deal with.
Eleven darts leveled the score, but the decisive moment came two legs into the third set when Sale took the lead and only managed 15 points with the first three darts, giving Littler an advantage he never relinquished.
Littler didn’t let up, scoring 10,180 points in the match, winning the fourth set with 110 points, and he had the same average in this match.
He performed well in doubles, especially in 20 doubles games, where his strikeout rate was as high as 58.8%, ensuring that there was no turning back for Sale.
There was little repeat of the boos Littler experienced in his last 16 win over Rob Cross on Monday – this time they were just a joke as he missed a 20-point treble by throwing six perfect darts at the start of the match.
advertise
It was one of two near misses for Littler in his search for the first world nine-darts title – after the second, he didn’t even win the event because Sale caught the big fish – with the maximum payout of $170.
His match at Alexandra Palace will see him rise to eighth in the world rankings, but it is Littler who reaches Saturday’s final.
Van Veen faces past idol Anderson in classic semi-final
Van Veen is the third Dutchman to reach the PDC World Championship final after Raymond van Barneveld and Michael van Gerwen. [Getty Images]
While Littler made the cut, Van Veen wasn’t so lucky, beating his idol Anderson in a brilliant match.
The Scot won the first set of darts at the start of the match with an average of 104, but any notion that 23-year-old Van Veen might be intimidated in his first world semi-final was quickly forgotten when he hit 10 darts in the second set.
advertise
An impressive average of 113.35 saw him level the score at 1-1 with a checkout of 117 and taste the sweetness in the following sets.
Anderson started the next game with 144 darts, but Van Veen struck back again, hitting six darts to start the decider with 11 darts.
Somehow, the fifth set once again took the match to another level. First, Anderson broke serve with 10 darts and scored 170 points, rewriting the score to 2-0 and then rewriting the score to 3-2.
Instead, Van Veen made it 4-1 after checking out 170 of his own. He won the match and averaged 111.46 points, while Anderson wondered how he lost the set when he averaged 117.44 points.
advertise
However, the 55-year-old’s resilience was on full display as, with the support of the crowd, he won the next two sets to move to 4-3 and put the pressure on his younger opponent – who missed four darts to make it 5-2.
Although both players showed the ruthless nature of the match was taking its toll, Van Veen held on, leading 5-3 before finishing strongly with 13 darts to seal his spot in the final.
“It’s not even a dream come true to reach the World Championship final because I couldn’t have dreamed of that,” Van Veen, who had not won a match at the World Championships before this match, told Sky Sports.
“Now that it’s happened, I’m happy.”
advertise
semi-final results
-
Luke Littler 6-1 Ryan Sale
-
Gian van Veen 6-3 Gary Anderson
final
-
Luke Littler(1) v Gian van Veen(10)
The finals, a best-of-13 format, will start at 20:00 GMT on Saturday.
