Luke Littler suffers shock defeat to Krzysztof Ratajski at European Championship Darts in Dortmund
Luke Littler suffered a shock defeat to Krzysztof Ratajski at the European Championship Darts, as he failed in his attempt to claim the one major title he's never won.
The world No 1 was beaten 10-6 in the quarter-finals on Sunday afternoon as his bid to sweep all of the PDC's major titles before his 20th birthday fell short.
Poland's Ratajski remarkably won seven legs in a row to take a 7-1 lead over the world champion before Littler rallied to pull the game back to 8-6.
But he missed bullseye to hold throw in the 15th leg and Ratajski pinned D16 to move 9-6 ahead.
Littler then failed to take out 121 in the next leg and Ratajski hit D10 to beat The Nuke for the first time in eight meetings.
Reflecting on his victory, Ratajski said: "He started to play very well after the second break. It was 8-2 for me and I had to wait, play my game and focus on my throw.
"He won three or four legs in a row and then I took a chance when he missed a double seven. It was my chance and I took it.
"It's my biggest achievement in the European Championship."
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Littler produced the second-best average in the tournament's history against Nathan Aspinall on Saturday evening, but averaged less than 100 on Sunday and hit only six of 16 attempts at double.
It's the latest setback for Littler, who suffered early exits at the World Series of Darts Finals and the World Grand Prix in recent weeks.
Littler will appear on a Netflix special next Friday night when 20 amateur players will attempt to beat him over one leg to win £501,000 before he turns his attention to defending his Grand Slam of Darts title live on Sky Sports in November.
Ratajski will face a home favourite in the semi-finals after Martin Schindler produced an astonishing display to thrash Jonny Clayton 10-1.
In front of a raucous home support, the underdog reeled off nine legs in a row, including a 127 on the bull in the fifth leg and a 167 on the bull in the sixth.
Schindler didn't miss a double in the first seven legs of the match and averaged more than 103 as he pulled off one of the biggest wins of his career.
On the other side of the draw, Gerwyn Price crushed Stephen Bunting 10-3 to book his place in Sunday evening's semi-finals.
Price went eight darts into a nine-darter in the fourth leg of the match, only to miss D12 for the perfect leg. However, he romped into a 7-1 lead and rarely looked in trouble.
Bunting briefly rallied to recover to 7-3, but Price reeled off three more legs for a comprehensive win with a 103 average.
Price will face top seed Ross Smith, who remains in the hunt for a second European Championship title after an impressive 10-6 victory over Luke Woodhouse in the opening match of the day.
He averaged 107 and hit seven 180s before sealing victory in style with a bullseye finish.
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25 of October 2026
