Luke Littler sends Nathan Aspinall chilling warning ahead of World Championships clash
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He's got the talent, he’s got the bottle - and Luke Littler has got the afterburners to take the chequered flag. Luke the Nuke’s path to the PDC World Championship quarter-finals has been a bumpier road than his magic carpet ride 12 months ago. But when he faces one of his best pals on the circuit, Nathan Aspinall, at Alexandra Palace on Wednesday, he will be fortified by two key traits that separate champions from contenders - resilience under pressure and a scoring power few, if any, can match.
Littler’s record against the ‘Asp’ is impressive - seven wins from their eight meetings, with an aggregate score of 45-31 in legs and the only defeat in the Premier League at Nottingham in March. Now he must recalibrate his sights because the widely-anticipated ‘Lukes of Hazard’ semi-final against Luke Humphries, his conqueror in the final at Ally Pally 12 months ago, is off the table - and it disappeared with Littler in a dream world of his own.
Humphries’ shock defeat by Peter Wright might have cleared his path to another final - but the road is littered with booby-traps. Littler, still only 17, said: “In a sense it obviously clears it, but there’s still Nathan in the way. And I’ll be honest, I fell asleep for the whole evening session on Sunday night.
“I was out of it from seven o’clock to about 2am. When I woke up, I checked Instagram, Peter’s won and I was like, ‘Really?’ But, yeah, I missed the whole game. “I know I can get the better of Nathan, but it’s the quarter-finals of the World Championship and anything can happen. Every player has to say the biggest threat is the man in front of them. Mine’s Nathan and then if I do go on to win it’ll be either Peter Wright or Stephen Bunting. But the main target is Nathan.
