Luke Littler defeated James Wade 11-7 to win the British Open.
Wade was aiming for his fifth British Open final and fourth chance to lift the trophy, but as was the case in 2025, he ran into Littler, but it was a bridge too far.
In fact, it was a stunning reenactment of the 2025 British Open final, where Littler crushed Wade 11-2.
This time it was a much closer contest, but Littler won again, becoming only the fourth player in history to compete in the tournament consecutively, after Raymond van Barneveld, Phil Taylor and Michael van Gerwen.
On his way to receiving the trophy, Littler defeated Damon Heta, Kevin Duetz, Gary Anderson, Danny Knoppert, Josh Locke, and Wade.
“I feel great. On average, I don’t think it was my best tournament, but I was able to dig deep throughout the tournament and come away with the win,” Littler told ITV Sport.
“That’s what James does. He’s always got your back. After the game, I told him if he had hit that double top, it would have been a completely different game.”
“Me and James always have a good fight.
“I said, ‘Keep going, you can get it next year.’
“I wasn’t happy with myself in the early rounds, but as a player you have to dig deeper.
“We are champions!”
The opening session of the final was disastrous for Wade, but despite averaging 80 points, he managed to win two of the five legs, disappointing Wade once again with Littler’s double.
Wade’s body language did not improve in the second session, and Littler was clearly better than the two fighters who appeared to be struggling, but the match was still very much a dogfight, with Littler leading 6-4 after a crucial slow break.
At one point, there was a 12-point difference in average, but Wade stayed in the competition, took minimal chances to increase his average, and managed to tie the game at 7-7.
The decisive moment came in the 16th leg, when Littler attempted his signature outside shot 10 times for his second D10 finish, overcoming Wade’s throw and accelerating to an 11-7 victory.
Littler survives his semifinal battle with Rock
Littler continued his 100 percent performance by winning 16 of 16 matches in an 11-9 battle with Josh Locke in the major semifinals.
Littler took the lead in the first leg, but was the driving force behind his downfall from the second leg onwards, missing 12 consecutive doubles while Lock pinned them with 100 percent accuracy. This allowed the Northern Irishman to spin into four legs and take a 4-1 lead.
Lock then hit a slow break with a stunning 128 checkout to make it 5-1, but Littler rode the momentum and hit three consecutive 13 darters to quickly level the score at 5-5.
With things getting tense, there was really nothing separating them, but after a break each at 9-9, Littler found a crucial second break to take a 10-9 lead and threw the match to pin the top, allowing Rock to endure another heartbreak in the semi-finals and a continuation of the major final.
Wade shows he’s better with a win over Price
Wade had a world-class performance, defeating Gerwyn Price 11-8 in the semi-finals.
Great darts from both players lit up the contest, but a double miss by Wade and a miscount by Price resulted in a break anyway, with Price taking an early 3-2 lead.
While Wade was hitting the 180s for fun, Price struggled in doubles, with breaks where the pair averaged more than 105 pitches, and the match progressed smoothly as “The Machine”‘s impressive 136 checkout tied the score at 5-5.
But from there it was all down to Wade as he found another level and did it in seven consecutive legs with a massive checkout of 167 on the bullseye in the middle. Price got back on the scoreboard with a big finish of 121, making the score 9-6.
Price surged to take the score to 10-8, but it was too little too late as Wade got his power scoring back on track and eventually won D10 to clinch back-to-back British Open finals at Minehead.
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