World champion Luke Littler’s hopes of defending his World Grand Prix title were dashed as he fell to a shock first-round defeat by Luke Woodhouse in Leicester.
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.
But despite taking the first set, he was distinctly below par throughout the best-of-three encounter, which is played in the ‘double in, double out’ format, averaging just 82.41.
That allowed Woodhouse to level the match and deliver a checkout of 75 to win the deciding set 3-1 in legs.
Woodhouse will face 2022 runner-up Nathan Aspinall in the last 16, who edged past Dutch debutant Kevin Doets 2-1.
After the defeat, Littler posted on this Instagram story, saying: “Well played Luke Woodhouse, was a good game [and] and a good one to a part of aswell.
“[We] both hit and both missed but Luke took his chance.
“Nice week off now. All the best to Luke for the rest of [the] tournament.”
Earlier on Monday, six-time winner Michael van Gerwen lost five legs out of the last six as 2024 semi-finalist Ryan Joyce fought back to win 2-1.
England’s Joyce will play Dutchman Danny Noppert, who advanced past Germany’s Niko Springer by the same scoreline.
Elsewhere, Wales’ Gerwyn Price only lost a single leg as he comfortably beat Poland’s Sebastian Bialecki 2-0 to set up a meeting with England’s Ross Smith, who came from behind to triumph 2-1 against Scotland’s Cameron Menzies.
Welshman Clayton edged past Krzysztof Ratajski 2-1, and he will take on the Netherlands’ Wessel Nijman, who overcame 2018 world champion Rob Cross in straight sets.
