Luke Littler booked a place in the PDC World Championship quarter finals after beating a resilient Ryan Joyce 4-3.
The Nuke got off to a strong start which has not been the case at the tournament so far, winning the first set in convincing fashion.
Joyce managed to break Littler’s throw in the opening leg of the second set but the teenager replied well and broke Joyce to win the second leg of set two.
It was a set full of breaking each others throw, as Joyce took a 2-1 lead in the second set and Littler responded to make it 2-2 in the second set.
Joyce managed to win the second set with a 116 checkout, hitting four out of five doubles in the match up to that point.
The 17-year-old is the favourite to win the competition on UK betting sites after Luke Humphries was eliminated by Peter Wright in a 4-1 defeat.
Being priced as the favourite to win was highlighted by Littler’s performance in the third set, winning 3-1 to gain a one set advantage going into the fourth set.
The fourth set got off to an interesting start, as Joyce broke Littler’s throw once again and moved to 2-0 up in the set and put some pressure on the Nuke.
Littler replied to make it 2-1 in set four but it was not enough as Joyce held onto his throw and win the set 3-1 to make it 2-2 overall.
As the match went on Joyce looked to be finding his feet but his opponent began to show the levels, as Littler secured the fifth set to go 3-2 up.
The sixth set started like the previous five, with a break of throw – as Joyce secured the first leg and showed great resilience.
However, Littler showed why he is the favourite to win the competition by winning two straight legs and breaking Joyce’s throw to take make the sixth set level at 2-2.
But Joyce managed to break Littler’s throw once again, as the teenager missed a match dart and the match went to a deciding set after a 3-3 stalemate.
The Nuke started off with a 12 dart leg to kick the deciding set off, which again came in a break of throw and then held his throw to go 2-0 up in the final set.
Joyce pulled one leg back to make it 2-1 in the deciding set, but Littler clinched the final leg to face Nathan Aspinall in the quarter finals – averaging 103.14 and hitting 14 180s.
WATCH: Luke Littler Beats Ryan Joyce
LITTLER SURVIVES JOYCE SCARE 👏
What a game, and what a battling performance from Luke Littler as he beats Ryan Joyce in a deciding set to reach the Quarter-Finals!
He will face Nathan Aspinall in the last eight!
📺 https://t.co/ItCofNEHJs#WCDarts pic.twitter.com/D9y1JDVieO
— PDC Darts (@OfficialPDC) December 30, 2024
