Luke Littler’s defense at the UK Open started with a win

World number one Luke Littler made a successful start to his defense at the UK Open, defeating Damon Hita 10-3 with another ‘Big Fish’ take-out along the way.

The tournament in Minehead, Somerset, sees more than 100 PDC Tour cardholders take part in 16 amateur qualifiers and an additional 16 players from the Winmau Challenge and Development Tours.

As the world’s top 32 teams entered the fray in the fourth round, Littler carded 170 points to take a 7-2 lead – a day after scoring twice in his first Premier League win of the year.

He signed in style shortly afterwards with a score of 120 including a triple 20, a double 20 and a double 10.

Other action saw Michael van Gerwen edge past Nathan Aspinall 10-8 after being 4-2 down.

Van Gerwen described Aspinall as a “fighter” and told ITV he remained “calm, especially at the end of the game” but admitted he gave “The Asp” too many chances.

Meanwhile, world number two Luke Humphries beat Luke Woodhouse 10-3, third seed Gian van Veen lost 10-7 to Rob Cross, and Dani Nobert scored nine fours during his 10-4 win over Dimitri van den Berg.