Luke Littler earned back-to-back Premier League victories with a 6-1 win over Luke Humphries in the final at Newcastle. Littler also beat Stephen Bunting and Rob Cross on his way to a fourth win of the competition.
Both Littler and Humphries had previously met in two finals during this season’s Premier League, with one win each. Humphries cut a frustrated figure as “the Nuke” stormed into a 4-0 lead with three successive double 20 checkouts.
Missed doubles proved costly for the world No 1 throughout the contest as Littler eased to victory and admitted afterwards he overcame some tiredness during Thursday’s showpiece. He said: “I’m very happy with my performances tonight, obviously it drifted off a bit towards the end, feeling a bit tired. I’m just good to get over that winning line in the final.
“My normal throw, or what I was throwing with tonight, I just felt tired so changed it up a bit. After the match Luke said he was tired, but I just had to stick in there. I’m feeling well. Tonight I was feeling tired when I would’ve been last week in the final. It’s all about making sure in yourself you’re right and [can] get up on stage to play these games.”
An impressive evening for Littler started with a dominant quarter-final victory over Bunting, where in 10 minutes he earned a 6-0 win, averaging just under 110. Bunting remains bottom of the standings without a win so far, but Littler hopes he can get that much-needed victory under his belt.
“I think last week he said he’s putting too much pressure on himself, without a win in eight weeks,” Littler said. “If I were Stephen you’ve just got to relax, saying come on win that first game. I’m sure once he gets that first win and gets that winning feeling he’ll go on, I think he could win a night.”
Another dominant display leaves Littler eight points clear at the top of the table, having won 16 matches in total. He added: “I think that does go to show how everyone says I am the best in the world at the minute. But you know me, I’ll never really say I am the best in the world, but I’m performing better than these guys, so maybe I should be saying I’m the best in the world, but we’ll just see how it goes.”
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On his way to the final, Humphries went the full distance with Nathan Aspinall in their thrilling semi-final clash, edging a 6-5 win with an average of just under 107. In the quarter-finals, he met Chris Dobey, who was competing in front of his hometown crowd, which included some of Newcastle’s Carabao Cup-winning team. Dobey’s homecoming was dampened by Humphries, who wrapped up a 6-3 win with double 16.
