Luke Littler: Defending champion surprised by Luke Woodhouse at World Grand Prix

World champion Luke Littler’s hopes of defending his World Grand Prix title have been dashed as he fell to a shock first-round defeat by Luke Woodhouse in Leicester.

Littler, 19, had been seeking to bounce again from his quarter-final exit to Jonny Clayton on the World Series of Darts Finals simply over every week in the past.

But regardless of taking the primary set, he was distinctly under par all through the best-of-three encounter, averaging simply 82.41.

That allowed Woodhouse to stage the match and ship a checkout of 75 to win the deciding set 3-1 in legs.

Woodhouse will face 2022 runner-up Nathan Aspinall within the final 16, who edged previous Dutch debutant Kevin Doets 2-1.

Earlier on Monday, six-time winner Michael van Gerwen misplaced 5 legs out of the final six as 2024 semi-finalist Ryan Joyce fought again to win 2-1.

England’s Joyce will play Dutchman Danny Noppert, who superior previous Germany’s Niko Springer by the identical scoreline.

Elsewhere, Wales’ Gerwyn Price solely misplaced a single leg as he comfortably beat Poland’s Sebastian Bialecki 2-0 to arrange a gathering with England’s Ross Smith, who got here from behind to triumph 2-1 in opposition to Scotland’s Cameron Menzies.

Welshman Clayton edged previous Krzysztof Ratajski 2-1, and he’ll tackle the Netherlands’ Wessel Nijman, who overcame 2018 global community champion Rob Cross in straight units.