World Series of Darts Finals: Luke Littler overcomes lively crowd to beat Danny Noppert as Gerwyn Price, Nathan Aspinall also win
World No 1 Luke Littler came through a difficult first-round test against Danny Noppert at the World Series of Darts Finals; Gerwyn Price, Jonny Clayton, James Wade and Nathan Aspinall also progressed to the second round
Friday 18 September 2026 23:17, UK
Luke Littler battled past Danny Noppert and a lively Dutch crowd to reach the second round at the World Series of Darts Finals in Amsterdam.
Littler, who has won every major tournament this year, reacted to effectively an away crowd twice in a dramatic contest to beat Noppert 6-4 and keep his hopes of an unprecedented clean sweep alive.
It sparked memories of several nights at this year's Premier League Darts when Littler faced whistles and jeers throughout the series on his way to winning the title, revealing afterwards he wanted to quit the invitational event.
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Noppert capitalised on a slow start by Littler to break in the third leg and held a 3-1 lead but the key moment came when he made a mess of a 44 checkout in the sixth leg which allowed Littler to break back and make it 3-3.
After winning that leg, Littler let out a huge roar and put his hands to his ears, asking the crowd for more noise as they booed him loudly.
Noppert missed two darts to restore his break advantage in the next leg and Littler punished him, then the teenager took out a superb 95 checkout with tops-tops to move 5-4 ahead and broke his opponent to win the match.
"Coming back from a losing position to win is always a great feeling," said Littler, who won the World Series of Darts Finals in 2024.
"I'm not putting pressure on myself. I am just focusing on round by round."
Should Littler win this weekend and win the following two tournaments, the World Grand Prix and European Championship, he would become the first player to hold every major darts title at the same time.
He would then set about trying to complete a remarkable clean sweep in November at the Grand Slam of Darts and Players Championship finals, but he's taking things one match at a time and will next face Nathan Aspinall in the second round of this week's competition.
"Nathan always throws everything at me. He produces his best, I perform at my best, and hopefully it's another great game tomorrow," said Littler.
"It would be one of the best darts achievements if I could pull it off [the clean sweep], but it's still a very long way away."
A night of close matches
Unlike the first night when Michael van Gerwen was stunned by Daryl Gurney, there were no major surprises as the first round came to a conclusion on Friday.
Former world champion Gerwyn Price raced into a 5-0 lead against Brody Klinge but the Australian fought back to 5-4 before Price stumbled over the line.
It was a similar story for his compatriot Jonny Clayton as he was 4-0 up before missing several match darts on his way to a 6-3 win over Maik Kuivenhoven, who was called up as a late replacement for Lourence Ilagan after the Philippines player withdrew due to visa issues.
James Wade edged out Damon Heta 6-5 after the latter missed a match dart in their deciding leg, while Aspinall fought back from 4-2 down to defeat Raymond Smith 6-4.
Having won six Players Championship events this year, Wessel Nijman is looking to turn that great form into something big on the televised stage and he started off his World Series of Darts campaign with a 6-4 win over veteran Simon Whitlock.
And there were 6-5 narrow wins for Canada's Jim Long over Australia's Adam Leek, plus Alexandra Palace cult hero Motomu Sakai against Callan Rydz.
2026 World Series of Darts Finals - Friday's results
Friday September 18
Round One x8
Adam Leek 5-6 Jim Long
Motomu Sakai 6-5 Callan Rydz
Wessel Nijman 6-4 Simon Whitlock
Nathan Aspinall 6-4 Raymond Smith
James Wade 6-5 Damon Heta
Gerwyn Price 6-4 Brody Klinge
Luke Littler 6-4 Danny Noppert
Jonny Clayton 6-3 Maik Kuivenhoven
2026 World Series of Darts Finals - Second Round Schedule
Saturday September 19
Afternoon Session - From 12pm
Josh Rock vs Ryan Searle
Daryl Gurney vs Ross Smith
Gian van Veen vs Karel Sedlacek
Luke Humphries vs Dirk van Duijvenbode
Gian van Veen vs Karel Sedlacek
Evening Session - From 6pm
Jonny Clayton vs Motomu Sakai
Gerwyn Price vs Jim Long
James Wade vs Wessel Nijman
Luke Littler vs Nathan Aspinall
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