Luke Littler’s hopes of darts clean sweep take huge hit as he faces desperate fight to reach Players Championship Finals

LUKE LITTLER’s hopes of defending his Players Championship Finals crown have taken a huge blow. Until this week, The Nuke had not bothered with any Pro Tours, deciding to skip the behind-closed-doors floor events. Luke Littler was stunned in his first Players Championship event of the season Littler lost to Jermaine Wattimena in Leicester In his first appearance of 2026, he could only bank £4,000 in prize money as he lost 6-5 to Dutchman Jermaine Wattimena, 38, in the quarter-finals of Players Championships 27 in Leicester. A last-leg decider saw Littler, 19, fall short as Wattimena hit a 115 checkout to win the match. Sign up for the Sport newsletter Thank you! It marks the first time that the Dutch star has beaten the reigning world champion in six PDC Tour meetings. The top 64 players on the Pro Tour will earn qualification for the Players Championship Finals. Teenage star Littler is currently ranked 141st on the Pro Tour after skipping the first 26 events this year. He is £22,250 behind the current 64th-placed Mario Vandenbogaerde, 53, with event winners earning £15,000 in prize money, and runners-up gaining £10,000. Littler needs to win at least one of the remaining seven tournaments to be in with the chance to qualify for the televised finals stage at Butlin’s Minehead resort on November 27-29. But Littler has previously noted that he only intends to feature in the UK events, giving him just three remaining opportunities to qualify. Most read in Sport BEST FREE BETS AND BETTING SIGN UP OFFERS The world No.1 has won all of the six TV majors so far in 2026.But his chances of a clean sweep of all 11 could be undermined by his decision to snub the Pro Tours. Leicester hosts Event 28 on Wednesday and then there are four days in Holland before it concludes with a double-header in the East Midlands on November 4-5. Comment now