Luke Littler’s fury after mind games from World Darts Champs opponent | Other | Sport
Luke Littler will take on Polish star Krzysztof Ratajski in the World Darts Championship quarter finals on Thursday evening. The 18-year-old has a history with Ratajski, however, that stems back to their clash at the Belgian Darts Open in 2024. Littler was at the mercy of Ratajski’s peculiar mind games which left the Warrington-born prodigy fuming.
The Nuke made his PDC European Tour debut at the event in Wieze in March of 2024. Littler was ultimately forced to change his water bottle at the event as Ratajski elected to turn the heat up on Littler by drinking from the youngster’s own bottle, whether on purpose or by mistake. After beating Jose de Sousa in his first match, Littler faced Ratajski in the second round.
Both players traded legs during the game’s early rounds with Littler leading 2-1 from the fourth leg. During one of Littler’s trips to the oche, the Polish star could be seen indulging in a cheeky sip from Littler’s bottle.
Littler took notice of Ratajski’s curious actions and removed the bottle from his table. He was then seen shaking his head as he sought out a new bottle before continuing on with the tie. Ratajski’s antics failed though as Littler won four of the next five legs to seal a 6-3 victory.
Afterwards, Little opened up on the odd moment. “I saw him drink a bit of my water. I saw him do it again so I just put it on the floor,” he said.
“Trying to get to me. If he is then fair enough, I’m just glad to get the win.” After seeing off Ratajski, the darts icon beat Damon Heta, Jermaine Wattimena and Ricardo Pietreczko to reach the final where he beat Rob Cross 8-7 to claim his first European Tour title.
As fate would have it, it was Littler’s fourth round clash with Cross that has put the young star in the news this week. Littler defeated Darius Labanauskas, David Davies and Mensur Suljovic in the opening three rounds of this year’s World Championship without dropping a set.
He was given a stern challenge by 17th-seed Cross but still went on to win 4-2. Yet controversy reigned following the tie when a clearly angry Littler took aim at the crowd who had booed him during the game with Cross.
Talking about the crowd’s call to side with underdog Cross, Littler said: “Can I just say one thing – you guys pay for tickets and you pay for my prize money so thank you, thank you for my money, thank you for booing me! Come on!”
He later doubled down on his comments, adding:”There’s no point whistling and booing because us the players, we’re always the winner. But hopefully it’s different on New Year’s Day.” Littler will meet Ratajski in the evening session on Thursday with the match set to get underway around 7.20pm.
