Littler advances but Price suffers shock exit

Littler advances but Price suffers shock exit Gerwyn Price lost in straight sets to Wesley Plaisier Image caption,Gerwyn Price lost in straight sets to Wesley Plaisier Image caption,Littler will resume his campaign after Christmas Image caption,Mensur Suljovic won 3-1 against Joe Cullen Published Luke Littler progressed to the third round but former champion Gerwyn Price suffered a shock exit at the PDC World Championship. The 2021 victor Price had boldly predicted he would win a second title but was beaten 3-0 by Dutchman Wesley Plaisier. Defending champion Littler, who was seeded to face Price in the quarter-finals, made the last 32 with a straight-set victory over David Davies. Price's fellow Welshman Davies missed six darts at double to take the opening set. Davies had taken time off from his full-time job as an NHS area manager to appear at Alexandra Palace and went to walk off stage at 2-2, mistakenly believing the first set was over. Littler, 18, pushed on from there and will next meet Mensur Suljovic, who earlier denied claims from his beaten opponent Joe Cullen of cheating by deliberately playing slowly. Price, ranked ninth, is the 12th of the 32 seeds to be knocked out. He had the better average of 95.83 but world number 92 Plaisier hit 56% of his doubles. "I can't believe it, I'm so over the moon. It's my biggest victory ever. I don't know how I did it," said Plaisier after setting up a meeting with Poland's Krzysztof Ratajski. Taylor 'sincerely sorry' after failed drugs test Published9 hours ago World Darts Championship 2026 schedule and results Published1 hour ago World Darts Championship - Draw, seeds, prize money Published1 hour ago 'Back-to-back is the only thing I want' - Littler Littler will resume his campaign after Christmas Littler only made his world championship debut two years ago, and his arrival as a teenage phenomenon has helped fuel a boom in darts' popularity. He became the youngest world darts champion in January aged 17 when he beat Michael van Gerwen, has gone on to win five more major titles in 2025 and overtook Luke Humphries as the world number one. On wanting to win the World Championship again, Littler said: "Since the Grand Slam and Grand Prix, the talk is the build-up to the Worlds. Back-to-back is the only thing I want." Victory extended his winning streak to 15 senior matches, going back to 25 October. He said Suljovic had predicted they would meet, adding: "I watched it this afternoon and he played well. When the tournament draw came out, Mensur messaged me and said 'see you in round three'. Mensur, let's have a good game." Australian Damon Heta, the 16th seed, won the final two sets to beat Swiss debutant Stefan Bellmont 3-2 and next plays 2018 world champion Rob Cross. Martin Schindler won three successive deciding legs to beat Keane Barry 3-0 and set up a third-round match against Ryan Searle. Suljovic denies slow play 'cheating' claim from Cullen Mensur Suljovic won...

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