{"id":6355,"date":"2024-04-30T15:02:06","date_gmt":"2024-04-30T15:02:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/\/pdc2.fw-web.space\/?p=6355"},"modified":"2024-11-01T21:11:10","modified_gmt":"2024-11-01T21:11:10","slug":"sensational-littler-sees-off-cullen-for-neo-bet-austrian-darts-open-glory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pdc2.fw-web.space\/news\/sensational-littler-sees-off-cullen-for-neo-bet-austrian-darts-open-glory\/","title":{"rendered":"Sensational Littler sees off Cullen for NEO.bet Austrian Darts Open glory"},"content":{"rendered":"

Luke Littler’s incredible debut year on the PDC circuit continued as the teenager claimed a second European Tour title with glory in the NEO.bet Austrian Darts Open final on Sunday night, seeing off Joe Cullen 8-4 to scoop the title.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The 17-year-old won the Belgian Darts Open in March on his European Tour debut and scooped another \u00a330,000 title in brilliant fashion in Graz.<\/p>\n

Littler – who won a third Premier League of the year on Thursday in Liverpool to return to the top of the table – had begun his challenge at the Steiermarkhalle with wins over Zoran Lerchbacher and Damon Heta to reach Finals Day.<\/p>\n

He then battled past Krzysztof Ratajski and Danny Noppert on Sunday to reach the semi-finals, where he again averaged over 105 for a second time in the event as he swept past Ross Smith by a 7-2 margin.<\/p>\n

Littler then produced a thrilling showing in a quick-fire final against Cullen, who had shone throughout the event in his bid to claim a fourth European Tour success.<\/p>\n

The first six legs were shared in a high-quality opening where all legs were recorded in 15 darts or less.<\/p>\n

Littler then posted his third successive 14-darter – which followed a 13-dart opening leg – as he moved 4-3 up, before breaking with a 65 checkout.<\/p>\n

Cullen responded to punish seven misses from the World Championship finalist in leg nine, but Littler added another 14-darter against the throw to regain his cushion.<\/p>\n

He then took out 66 to lead 7-4 before wrapping up the title final style with a 12-darter which ended on the bullseye.<\/p>\n

“I’m just happy to get over the line again,” said Littler, who was awarded the traditional green jacket alongside the winner’s trophy after averaging almost 103 in the final.<\/p>\n

“It didn’t happen in Sindelfingen but I’ve come here and I’ve put myself right and won another one.<\/p>\n

“We started off really well but I think I stuck at it and Joe started to fall off, and I got over the line.<\/p>\n

“This weekend has been good, my darts have been good and these guys [the crowd] have helped me so much.”<\/p>\n

Cullen had averaged 102 or more in his 6-3 wins over Darius Labanauskas, Dave Chisnall and Gian van Veen, before edging out Stephen Bunting 7-5 in the semi-finals.<\/p>\n

Despite hitting four doubles from as many attempts in the final, the Bradford ace found himself 17 points behind Littler in the averages in defeat, and he admitted: “I’m disappointed but congratulations to Luke.<\/p>\n

“I was not very good – I’m disappointed with the way I played in the final but if you’d have offered me a final before the week started I’d have taken it.<\/p>\n

“He played better than me and did what he had to do at the right times. He’s a fantastic talent, I think he’s a generational talent.<\/p>\n

“He’s been fantastic all weekend and he’s great for the game.”<\/p>\n

Smith had been the runner-up in last weekend’s International Darts Open, and he enjoyed a second successive win over Michael van Gerwen on his way to the semi-finals in Graz.<\/p>\n

Bunting’s wins over Daryl Gurney and Martin Schindler on Sunday saw him reach the last four for the second time in three events.<\/p>\n

Recent International Darts Open winner Schindler was unable to repeat his success in Riesa as he lost out in a deciding leg to Bunting in the quarter-finals, where the Dutch trio of Van Gerwen, Noppert and Gian van Veen also exited.<\/p>\n

The PDC European Tour continues next month with the NEO.bet Baltic Sea Darts Open in Kiel from May 10-12, ahead of the Dutch Darts Championship in Rosmalen from May 24-26.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Luke Littler’s incredible debut year on the PDC circuit continued as the teenager claimed a second European Tour title with…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":6444,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[943,109,124],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-pdc-europe","category-results"],"lang":"en","translations":{"en":6355,"de":6351},"pll_sync_post":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pdc2.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6355"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pdc2.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pdc2.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pdc2.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pdc2.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6355"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pdc2.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6355\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6356,"href":"https:\/\/pdc2.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6355\/revisions\/6356"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pdc2.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pdc2.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pdc2.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pdc2.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}