Luke Littler celebrated his fourth European Tour title in Antwerp, dispatching Josh Rock 8-7 to triumph in the Blåkläder Flanders Darts Trophy.
Littler – a winner already in Belgium this year on the European Tour – continued his terrific form at the Antwerp Expo to clinch his fifth ranking title of the campaign.
The Englishman was dominant on his first stage appearance since the World Matchplay in July, as he produced a string of dominant displays in Antwerp to add another title to his illustrious haul.
Rock got off to the perfect start in the final, as the World Cup champion led the World Champion 4-1 in Sunday’s showpiece, but Littler would go on to win five out of the next six legs which took him to the brink of an emphatic victory.
Rock landed another brilliant bull finish to stop the rot, converting a 161 skin-saver in leg fourteen to preserve his slender hopes, only for Littler to wrap up proceedings via an 11-dart-leg moments later.
“I think I started off okay, I wasn’t the quickest away, my cover shooting, my doubles, they all went well!
“When Josh [Rock] hit the 161 checkout, it wasn’t a good feeling, but then I knew all I had to do was break the throw and win the game.
“Ever since I started playing darts I have always loved a last-leg decider. I back myself with or without the darts but I knew I had to go out in eleven there.”
Littler has only played eleven European Tour events since breaking onto the scene at the start of 2024, but the 18-year-old has already won four of these events, three of them coming in Belgium.
“The European tour stage, I love it. I love coming here [Belgium] and I’ve said for the past year now that we need a Premier League event here.
“They love me here, I love them, they wanted Josh to win for a bit in that game, but for myself I had to crawl back from 4-1 down, then I knew they’d get back on my side.
“This is it now. From now it’s back-to-back with tournaments, September and October are some of the craziest months of the calendar, I know how to deal with that and know what’s coming up.”
Wade, meanwhile, cruised through his Last 16 game against Leon Weber, beating the German 6-2, before dumping out Dutch youngster Gian van Veen to reach his third European Tour semi-final of the year.
Daryl Gurney also progressed to the final four, accounting for Belgian Mario Vandenbogaerde before thrashing of Danny Noppert in a whitewash victory.
Noppert and van Veen were joined in the quarter-finals by Australian number one Damon Heta and Englishman Luke Woodhouse who continued his good run of form on the European Tour with another quarter-final.