By Sarah Leaver in Blackpool
Previous champion James Wade began the World Matchplay final with purpose, taking the opening five legs away from Luke Littler, similar to Littler’s semi-final match against Josh Rock, in which he overcame to win 17-14.
Also like the semi-final, the break was all the teenager needed to get back in the game, taking the next 5 legs with an average of 105.95 to level the game.
Wade took first blood in the third mini session before Littler pegged him back once again, and again to take the lead, before the roles reversed, and Wade levelled 7-7 against the 18-year-old.
Littler went into the third break leading 7-8, but a topsy-turvy session saw Littler, three times in a row, take a two-leg advantage before Wade halved the deficit immediately afterwards, but the Warrington man took his two-leg benefit into the fourth break.
The cycle continued well into the fifth mini session which included Littler narrowly missing a second nine-dart finish in two days, but the run was broken when the teenager took a three-leg advantage at 10-13, averaging 106.31.
After the fifth break, Wade came out firing, taking two legs to bring himself one leg behind, but Littler persevered and put himself two legs away from the World Matchplay title.
The excitement didn’t pressure the World Champion, putting his foot on the gas to finish the game in style with a 115-checkout to win the match 13-18.
This makes Littler the youngest ever winner of the World Matchplay, as well as the youngest and fastest player to win the Triple Crown (World Championship, Premier League, and World Matchplay) since their debut, in just one year and seven months.
POST MATCH QUOTES FROM THE WINTER GARDENS
Luke Littler described James Wade as “just another object in the way” following his World Matchplay final victory against the 42-year-old.
“I beat him in a major in the UK Open early on this year” the 18-year-old said, “Yeah, just to get another win over him here in Blackpool, means the world.”
Littler defeated veteran Wade 18-13 in the final at the Winter Gardens in Blackpool to become the youngest ever winner of the competition (breaking Wade’s own record) as well as becoming the youngest and fastest Triple Crown winner from their debut.
The Warrington man said: “It feels absolutely amazing, it just goes to show how well I’ve been playing, how much effort has been put in.
“Like I said at the start of my career, win one of every major and I’ll be happy, so there’s not that many to go.
“Just to get my name on the trophy, it means a lot.”
The teenage sensation had a far from easy run to the Phil Taylor Trophy however, regularly going behind early on in matches to the likes of Jermaine Wattimena and Josh Rock, but despite this, Littler still broke the record for the highest number of 180s in a tournament, with 64 – shattering the previous record of 56.
“They could be broken” the World Champion said, “or I could come back next year and break them again!”
“Obviously I played a lot of legs throughout the Matchplay so it’s no surprise that I’ve broken the 180 record, and the power scoring was there again tonight.”
Littler is closing in on the world number one spot in the PDC Order of Merit, just under £300,000 behind Luke Humphries at the top of the table.
He said: “If Luke [Humphries] doesn’t defend all that prize money, I’d love to be world number one, but we’ll just have to find out.”
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