Luke Littler has exited the World Grand Prix after suffering a shock first round defeat to Luke Woodhouse.
'The Nuke' headed to Leicester as the defending champion after defeating world number two Luke Humphries 6-1 in the final last year, but his elimination opens the floor for someone else to clinch the honour.
It's a defeat that ends a relatively disappointing week or so for the Warrington-born sensation, losing in the quarter-finals of the World Series of Darts Finals against Jonny Clayton on 20th September, his first major defeat in 335 days.
Littler averaged just 82.41 in his 2-1 defeat to Woodhouse on Monday night, further impeded by his checkout success rate of 37%, and he's now set for a break away from the oche before returning for the European Championship in October.
Following world number one's shock exit from the World Grand Prix, we take a look at the last time that Littler was eliminated in the first round of a ranked PDC competition.
When did Luke Littler last exit a ranked PDC competition in the first round?
Before his World Grand Prix defeat to Woodhouse, the last time that Littler was eliminated in the first round of a ranked PDC competition was at the European Championship in October 2024.
'The Nuke' -- who was world number three at the time -- fell to a 6-4 loss to Andrew Gilding, who would exit the competition just a round later against Ricardo Pietreczko.
While it's now quite a shock to see Littler exit televised events in the first round, his European Championship elimination in 2024 marked the third successive occasion that he fell at the first hurdle in a ranked PDC tournament.
Since his first round loss to Gilding almost two years ago, Littler has participated in 15 ranked PDC televised events. He has emerged victorious on a remarkable 11 occasions.
