Michael Van Gerwen got his sweet revenge over Luke Littler on the opening night of the Premier League.
Premier League night one got underway in Belfast with the invitational tournament throwing up eight of the leading PDC stars including Luke Littler, Luke Humphries and Michael Van Gerwen.
Littler and Van Gerwen met in a mouth-watering clash in the quarter-final of the maiden session, their second meeting of the year so far after ‘The Nuke’ beat his rival at the Dutch Masters as well as in the final of the World Championship at Alexandra Palace.
There had been a lively build-up to the clash, with Van Gerwen incredibly taking a subtle dig at Littler for his punctuality in the build-up to the clash.
But it was Van Gerwen who took it in a deciding leg, winning 6-5 to get his revenge.
He pinned a double and turned to the crowd pumping his fist with a huge roar.
Littler was incredible and averaged the higher at 113.91, the highest ever in Belfast, but it just wasn’t enough to see the quarter-final through and he was eliminated on night one early on.
The stunning stats continued as it emerged that it was the second highest average to ever fall to defeat in Premier League history.
Phil Taylor famously lost to Raymond Van Barneveld despite posting a 115.80 average in 2015.
It was a real gut-wrenching defeat, but he will know he has 16 more weeks to keep performing and plugging away to defend his title and £500,000 prize money.
It was a fast format of just six legs, a vastly different set-up to their previous match, a long barnstormer in the world final.
Littler got the better of Van Gerwen 7-3 in sets in the World Championship final, but things started at a frightening pace in Belfast.
‘The Nuke’ started extremely brightly, but it was Van Gerwen who needed to dig out a finish to hold throw in the third leg, going 2-1 up despite some adversity.
But the high quality of tungsten magic continued in the fourth leg as Littler scored an epic 161 finish to even up the contest in a real pivotal moment in the match.
It was a real pleasure to watch the pair go at it again, as Littler made the key breakthrough with his beloved double 10, earning the break of throw.
But it was short lived as Van Gerwen broke back, with the world champion averaging over 115, while the flying Dutchman wasn’t far behind.
And he rallied despite Littler’s sensational display with some incredible arrows of his own, opening up the biggest lead of the match at 5-3.
The simply incredible match went all the way to the wire at 5-5 with Littler pulling back the deficit.
But Van Gerwen, who had five match darts, finally managed to get his triumph and ousted Littler, who was left stunned.
It was an incredible showdown living up to all of the hype, but Littler suffered defeat at the finest of margins.
Van Gerwen showed exactly why he was inevitable and will be a real threat to the teenage prodigy’s crown.
It was the Dutchman’s first victory over Littler since eliminating him from last year’s World Matchplay at Winter Gardens.
Littler will have a target on his back given his scintillating form, and the quality has already started at a premium level.