Luke Littler moved into the semifinals of the World Matchplay darts tournament Thursday night with a commanding 16-7 quarter-final win over Josh Rock at the Winter Gardens in Blackpool.
The world number one and defending champion took control of the match after the two players traded breaks to reach 5-5. Littler then reeled off five legs in a row and Rock was unable to recover. According to BBC Sport, Littler threw 17 180s and posted a scoring average of 109.57 across the match.
"At the minute, everything's going to plan," Littler said after the win. The teenager added: "I feel good. I can afford to miss a few doubles because the scoring's there. Once again another brilliant performance, but fair play to Josh, he put up a good fight."
Littler will face unseeded Dirk van Duijvenbode of the Netherlands in Saturday's semifinal. Van Duijvenbode reached his first ever Matchplay semifinal Thursday by defeating Gary Anderson 16-13. Anderson, the 2018 World Matchplay champion, trailed by eight legs at one point but produced a strong late run that included a 154 checkout before van Duijvenbode closed out the match.
Van Duijvenbode had earlier spoken about his second-round win over Michael van Gerwen, saying that shaking "like a little child crying for his mum" had allowed his compatriot back into that match after he had led 8-4. Against Anderson on Thursday, he led 8-4 again before dropping two consecutive legs, then stormed into a 14-6 lead by winning six straight. Anderson pushed him hard over the final stretch, requiring nine more legs before van Duijvenbode secured the 16-13 result.
Friday's quarter-final action is scheduled from 20:05 BST and features third seed Gian van Veen against James Wade, and seventh seed Gerwyn Price against Ross Smith.
