Luke Littler breezes past home favourite Zoran Lerchbacher with crushing 6-2 Austrian Darts Open victory
LUKE LITTLER zoomed from victorious panto villain in Liverpool to destroyer of the Austrian Open’s home hero just 24 hours later.
The Manchester United fan followed up his Premier League Darts triumph on Merseyside by beating Graz hurler Zoran Lerchbacher 6-2.
Not surprisingly, after a 1,130-mile dash across the continent, the Nuke was not quite at his best.
But the 17-year-old took the first two legs easily enough – the first via a bullseye, the second with double 12.
However, Lerchbacher got a leg back against the throw.
And after Littler went 3-1 up, he did the same again to briefly give the contest a nervy edge.
A partisan crowd certainly did their best to roar Lerchbacher on.
But he missed three shots to level at 3-3 – enabling Littler to instead nick back in and go 4-2 up.
The Warrington starlet never looked back – comfortably taking the next two legs, adding his second 180 of the match, to close out victory.
The unseeded wonderkid now faces Australian Damon Heta in the second round on Saturday – the stage where most of his top rivals enter the event.
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The previous night Littler had notched up his third weekly triumph in Prem Darts to move five points clear in the table.
He beat Rob Cross 6-2 in the final after a 6-5 comeback win against pal Nathan Aspinall.
Inside Littler's massive rise
LUKE LITTLER has taken the darts world by storm since exploding onto the scene at the PDC World Championship.
The Nuke reached the final on his Ally Pally debut at just 16 years of age – smashing records along the way.
He has since joined Jude Bellingham on the Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe list.
And the teenage titan even had to snub an invite from the WWE.
The Sun exclusively revealed that Littler is plotting to create a fitness empire.
He is also cashing in away from the Oche thanks to an Instagram side hustle.
And he’s even the face of a brand new cereal.
Check out all of our Luke Littler stories here.