Luke Littler showed who was boss at the Bahrain Masters after easing past veteran Paul Lim in the opening round.
It was not quite the apprentice beating the master in the Middle East even if Littler got the better of an opponent who is 53 years his senior.
The 19-year-old named Lim, 71, as one of the players he did not want to face at the recent World Championship but made light work of him, cruising to a 6-1 victory.
Luke Littler defies the experienced Paul Lim with another stellar performance in Bahrain 🇧🇭
— PDC Darts (@OfficialPDC) January 15, 2026
A 106 average from the Nuke! pic.twitter.com/NplVH8WOfR
That included a 106 average and a trademark ‘Big Fish’ 170 checkout, which set up a quarter-final with Gerwyn Price.
Littler does not expect to be still at the oche when he is 71.
He said: “Not a chance! I will say it now.
“Paul’s doing well. He’s been doing well for many years. He’s just class and I wonder when is he going to retire? But yeah, he still goes very strong in the practice room as well.
“I think the World Championships would have been a different breed. Obviously he is a fan favorite, but it was the same tonight when he got his first leg and made it 1-1 but I started to kick on and got the win.”
Littler next plays Price, who beat him in last year’s semi-final. The Welshman avoided a scare against dancing Japanese star Motomu Sakai, winning 6-3.
Second seed Luke Humphries was in ruthless form against Abdulla Saeed, dispatching him 6-0 while World Championship runner-up Gian van Veen beat Man Lok Leung 6-2.
Michael van Gerwen saw off Alexis Toylo, Nathan Aspinall edged past Lourence Ilagan and defending champion Stephen Bunting made light work of Ryusei Azemoto.
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