The Warrington 18-year-old outgunned Belgian Dimitri Van den Bergh 6-4 in the first round on Friday night to seal a titanic tussle with local hero Van Gerwen in Saturday’s quarter-finals in Den Bosch.
Dutch legend Van Gerwen, who defeated Littler 8-6 in the final of this World Series of Darts event last year, booked his ticket by beating fellow countryman Dirk van Duijvenbode in their last-16 contest.
The meeting in De Maaspoort of the two biggest names in darts will be their first since ‘The Nuke’ flattened MVG to be crowned world champion at Alexandra Palace on January 3.
Littler received a tremendous ovation from the Dutch crowd and was eager to please, although he did not have things all his own way.
Two ton-plus finishes and a 101 average proved to be too good for the Belgian in the end.
‘The Nuke’ threw a 180 on his second visit to the oche against Van den Bergh.
It helped him to break throw in the opening leg, bowing out in 16 darts.
A majestic 134 checkout for a 12-darter put him two legs to the good.
-Van den Bergh held throw in 15 darts to get off the mark and then broke the teenager in 11 darts to level things up, despite the teenager starting the fourth leg with five perfect arrows.
Littler missed the bullseye to break Van den Bergh in 11 darts but got another crack and turned to his favourite double 10 for a 3-2 lead.
Two missed double 16 efforts cost Littler as Van den Bergh responded with a break of throw of his own.
Van den Bergh finished in 87 to hit the front at 4-3 but Littler fired back with a 102 checkout to hold his throw.
Littler missed the bull for a 170 finish and then bust as he attempted to check out on double 16, but nailed it on his return visit to go back in front 5-4.
And ‘The Nuke’ wrapped up the win with an 11-dart hold of throw.
