Luke Littler’s world number one bid suffers setback with defeat to James Wade

Luke Littler’s bid to become world number one for the first time suffered a setback with a surprise 10-7 defeat to James Wade at the European Championship in Dortmund.

World champion Littler, who thrashed Dutchman Raymond van Barneveld in the opening round, would have knocked current number one Luke Humphries off his perch with victory at the tournament.

But it was 2018 European champion Wade who reached the quarter-finals with his maiden career win against Littler in front of the television cameras.

The 18-year-old recovered from 2-0 down to take a 3-2 lead and with the scores level at 4-4, he narrowly missed bull when going for a 170-checkout and Wade edged 5-4 ahead.

A 110-checkout moved Wade 6-4 up and with Littler unable to close the gap, the 42-year-old world number five sealed victory with a 108-finish.

Humphries, knowing that his number one spot was safe for now, was forced to dig deep against Scotland’s Cameron Menzies in his second-round match before taking the decider to edge through 10-9.

Earlier on Saturday, top seed Nathan Aspinall crashed out after a 10-7 defeat to Netherlands number two Danny Noppert and four-time European champion Michael van Gerwen beat world number eight Chris Dobey 10-5.

Ryan Searle fell victim to impressive world youth champion Gian van Veen, who cruised into the third round with a 10-2 win and Ryan Joyce saw off Germany number one Martin Schindler 10-7.

Another home favourite, Ricardo Pietreczko, defeated 2024 runner-up Jermaine Wattimena 10-6, while 2022 champion Ross Smith lost 10-6 to Daryl Gurney.