World champion Luke Littler saw his winning run brought to a halt as he was edged out by Beau Greaves in a last-leg decider in the semi-finals of the PDC World Youth Championship in Wigan.
The 18-year-old had continued his superb recent form by dismantling rival Luke Humphries 6-1 in the World Grand Prix final in Leicester on Sunday night to land a fourth major trophy of the year.
Rather than taking some downtime after what Littler admitted had been a “brutal” double-start event in Leicester, the world champion was back at the oche at the Robin Park Leisure Centre in Wigan on Monday afternoon as part of the 128-strong field.
As expected, Littler – who also won the UK Open and World Matchplay to continue his dominance on the main PDC Tour – had no trouble in progressing from the initial round-robin stage, with the players split into 32 groups of four and the top two going on into the knockout stage.
After then comfortably seeing off Tom Garfield 6-2, averaging 102, before dispatching Ireland’s Ronan McDonagh 6-1 to move into the last 16, Littler found himself facing defeat against Charlie Manby.
The 20-year-old – who is fourth on the PDC Development Tour rankings – threatened a major upset when opening up a 3-1 lead and again at 5-3.
Littler, though, dug deep to survive match darts and take the final three legs of a high-scoring match in which both players averaged more than 102.
The quarter-final against Jamai van den Herik proved less dramatic, as Littler built on a fast start to close out a 6-1 win.
Three-time WDF women’s world champion Greaves – who is expected to accept a PDC Tour card for 2026-27 – had gone 2-1 up in the semi-final, before Littler responded with the next three legs.
Greaves – who has also won the PDC Women’s World Matchplay twice – produced a recovery of her own to level the match at 4-4 and then again at 5-5 to force a last-leg decider, which she took out on 80 as Littler slipped to a rare defeat despite a match average of 107.4.
Defending World Youth champion Gian van Veen came through the other side of the knockout draw, beating Sebastian Bialecki 6-4 in his semi-final.
The event’s final will be on November 23 at Butlin’s Minehead Resort, which will also be hosting the 2025 Players Championship Finals – where Littler is again expected to be among the leading contenders for another major PDC crown.
