Luke Littler powers past Paul Lim at the Bahrain Darts Masters
Luke Littler continued his blistering winning run with a 6-1 rout of Paul Lim at the Bahrain Darts Masters on Thursday, as defending champion Stephen Bunting also advanced.
Just 12 days on from retaining the World Championship title, Littler picked up from where he left off at Alexandra Palace by thrashing Singapore legend Lim.
Day One of the season’s opening World Series event saw all eight PDC stars safely progress to Friday’s quarter-finals.
Littler extended his three-month unbeaten record in televised competition by averaging 106 in defeating Lim in an historic contest.
The world number one also landed a trademark 170 checkout and three 180s en route to victory in a match which featured a darting record age gap of 53 years.
“Paul’s been performing well for many, many years,” said Littler.
“He’s a class act and he’s still going strong, but thankfully I was able to kick on and get the win.
“It’s always good to be back in Bahrain. This is the start of the new season for us, and you want to start the year off right, with a title.”
Reigning champion Bunting kick-started his title defence at the Exhibition World with a routine 6-2 win over Japan’s Ryusei Azemoto despite missing 16 darts at doubles.
Bunting’s reward is a showdown with three-time World Champion Michael van Gerwen – who defied a spirited display from PDC Asian Tour winner Alexis Toylo to open his title challenge.
The Dutchman reeled off three straight legs from 4-3 down to overcome the methodical left-hander, as he sets his sights on a record-extending 17th World Series title.
Luke Humphries also impressed on opening night, averaging 103.6 to register a third consecutive whitewash of Host Nation representative Abdulla Saeed.
“I’m pretty happy with my performance,” admitted Humphries.
“I want to come here and start the season a little bit better than I usually do, and I’ve tried my best to keep in the flow with my practice this year.”
World Championship runner-up Gian van Veen kicked off his campaign with a 6-2 victory over Man Lok Leung, winning five straight legs to dump out Hong Kong’s World Cup quarter-finalist.
Danny Noppert ran out a comprehensive 6-1 winner against Bahrain’s Basem Mahmood, as he enjoyed a winning return on the World Series stage.
Gerwyn Price and Nathan Aspinall completed the quarter-final line-up, confirming their progress with 6-4 wins against Motomu Sakai and Lourence Ilagan respectively.
Two-time runner-up Price survived a scare in Thursday’s opener, firing in a superb 11-darter to set up a clash with Littler in the Last Eight.
Aspinall later denied PDC Asian Champion Ilagan by the same scoreline, in a repeat of their encounter in last month’s World Championship.
Bahrain Darts Masters 2026 Day One Results
Thursday January 15
First Round
Gerwyn Price 6-4 Motomu Sakai
Gian van Veen 6-2 Man Lok Leung
Danny Noppert 6-1 Basem Mahmood
Nathan Aspinall 6-4 Lourence Ilagan
Luke Humphries 6-0 Abdulla Saeed
Luke Littler 6-1 Paul Lim
Michael van Gerwen 6-4 Alexis Toylo
Stephen Bunting 6-2 Ryusei Azemoto
