Teenage sensation Luke Littler sealed his place for the fourth round of the 2025 World Darts Championship in a nervy victory over Ian White on Saturday.
Littler, 17, earned a 4-1 win over White, although the scoreline could have been very different had his opponent been more clinical on his doubles.
White kept pace with Littler but missed multiple set darts throughout the match, meaning it ended with an arguably misleading final score.
"It was tough," Littler told Sky Sports. "Ian threw everything at me. If I hit a 180, he hit back with a 180 so I had to stay switched on."
The darting phenom got off to a slow start, much as he did in his opening match of the tournament. He managed to take the opening set despite White missing chances to go ahead himself, but the scores were levelled the following set when White capitalised on some poor finishing.
Littler had averaged just 90.44 -- exceedinly low by his own high standards -- in the opening two sets.
When asked after the match where he felt nervous, Littler said: "It was just a case of settling in quick. The first set was OK. But after the first break I was really up for it."
The teenager took the next three sets despite a rallied performance from White, who again missed set darts in the fouth set.
"When you're 3-1 up, last break and you have that feeling that you're only three legs away and that's what I said to myself.
"I don't think D10 liked me tonight and I didn't like them," he said. "I was thinking of switching up to D18 or D16 but I stuck at the doubles I know and D10 got me home."
He will face Ryan Joyce in the next round on Monday.
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