Luke Littler is through to the 2025 World Matchplay semi-finals after a hard fought 16-14 win over Andrew Gilding yesterday evening.
Littler is chasing his final triple crown title in darts at the World Matchplay, having already won the World Championship and Premier League in his short career to date.
He is also closing the gap on the world number one spot, currently held by Luke Humphries. A shock first round exit for Humphries will see Littler move within £300k of the top spot if he were to win the title this weekend.
This is also a year where Humphries is defending big money in the latter part of the year while Littler can keep adding to his two-year earning tally for the Order of Merit…
After making it past a resilient Andrew Gilding, Luke Littler sets up a semi-final tie against former ‘prodigy’ and friend Josh Rock who is having a sensational season.
LITTLER WINS A THRILLER! ☢️
— PDC Darts (@OfficialPDC) July 25, 2025
What. A. Match! 🔥
Luke Littler produces a brilliant 11-darter to complete a stunning 16-14 victory over Andrew Gilding!
📺 https://t.co/ZboV9dF4Ji #MatchplayDarts | QF pic.twitter.com/ubnSVgAEIl
Josh Rock was tipped to be the future of darts before Luke Littler appeared on the scene at the back end of 2023, while he was yet to live up to his potential, 2025 has seen a resurgence for the 24 year old.
Rock is still a young player in professional darts which is noteworthy in a week where Gary Anderson labelled the young generation of darts players as ‘boring’.
Luke Littler (who many said the comment was directed in part at) has now responded…
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Luke Littler on Gary Anderson ‘BORING’ Comment
Earlier this week, Gary Anderson went on an unexpected rant where he called out the young players in darts for being ‘boring’ and failing to ‘have a laugh’ in and around events.
See more – Gary Anderson labels young darts players ‘boring’
He didn’t name any names but there aren’t too many young players on the ProTour (and definitely not at major tournaments) so fans and media made the assumption that it was a comment partially aimed at Luke Littler…
Following his win over Andrew Gilding, Littler was asked if he speaks to Gilding outside of darts in the post-game media interview and Littler took this moment to respond to Anderson’s earlier comments.
He said:
“I don’t think he’s a big talker, Andrew – A lot of us players, we just get on with our thing.
“Like Gary Anderson said, we’re boring so that’s what we do.”
It may have been an unprompted response to Anderson’s quote but it was made with a smile.
Littler seemed unbothered about how youngsters approach darts tournaments and with the results he’s had over the last 20 months, it’s hard to argue against it!
Luke Littler will be in action tonight from 21:40pm as he looks to secure his place in the finals.
See his full interview provided by Tungsten Tales below:
SEE MORE LUKE LITTLER ON DECENT DARTS
➡️ [WATCH] 14-year-old Luke Littler hits nine-darter WITHOUT hitting a 180
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