Luke Littler suffered a Premier League quarterfinal exit at the Brighton Centre, falling to Stephen Bunting in a match where he recorded his lowest-ever TV average in a PDC match at 83.94. The 19-year-old reigning world champion faced a hostile reception with whistles and boos during his walk-on and struggled from the start, with the crowd responding with sarcastic applause during a poor opening spell. Littler switched darts multiple times in search of rhythm but failed to hit a single 180, eventually leaving the stage visibly shaken after a sporting handshake.
Analyst and former Premier League player Wayne Mardle suggested the performance was a reaction to Littler's clash with Gian van Veen the previous week, stating, "I'm assuming tonight was a reaction to last week, although I don't know. Littler looked quite flat, there were points where he was lobbing the darts, not petulantly but not with directness he normally throws." Mardle added, "It would be more of a coincidence if we said it had nothing to do with last week, it was a knock-on from that. I thought he was going to be okay but he wasn't. He's going to have to get back on the horse soon."
Bunting, who turned 41 on Thursday, capitalized on Littler's struggles despite inefficiency, converting only six doubles from 21 attempts. After the match, Bunting showed sympathy, telling Sky Sports, "Thankfully, he is human. It's tough because the crowd was giving him some stick. I like Luke because he's a fantastic lad and I don't like to see that." Three-time world champion John Part was critical, saying, "He looked disinterested. Stephen did what he had to do. It must have been off-putting watching Luke and how he played. He really was off, you can speculate whatever the reasons." Part noted Bunting could have won more convincingly, stating, "For Stephen, he had to get on with it and he could have won the match 6-0. He really should have. The first two legs Luke won, he had no business winning," but added a caveat about the difficulty of facing the world No. 1.
