Luke Littler made a surprise admission that he thinks 'nobody will believe' in a brutally honest interview after winning the Bahrain Darts Masters.
The 16-year-old, who celebrates his 17th birthday on Sunday, beat Michael van Gerwen 8-5 in the final in Bahrain to continue his historic rise.
Littler earns £20,000 as a result of the victory, which moves him up to 30th position in the two-year Order of Merit.
Earlier in the event, he hit a nine-darter against Nathan Aspinall in the quarter-finals, becoming only the second player to achieve that feat at a World Series event after the legendary Phil Taylor.
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He was ranked world number 164 before the World Championship got underway in December, with his run to the final against Luke Humphries moving him up an incredible 133 places.
Speaking to ITV's Dan Dawson after winning his first senior ranking title, Littler admitted that, prior to his first round match against Man Lok Leung in Bahrain, he hadn't thrown a dart since that match against the world number one on January 3.
He said: "I'm happy to win, and earlier on in the quarters I obviously hit the nine-darter against Nathan.
"I played well yesterday, and I played well again tonight.
"Nobody probably believes me, but I've not thrown a dart since the world final, and yesterday was the first proper practice I put in. It's all paid off!
"I'm just happy to win, obviously against Michael, who's still one of the best, the very best. I'm just happy to win on my debut.
"It's been unbelievable this week. We've got us eight [PDC-selected participants in the tournament] in the Premier League, and the eight Asian players [in the tournament] were brilliant as well. I'm just happy to come out as the winner."
More to follow...
Topics: Luke Littler, Darts
Ryan Smart