Littler loses early in opening Players Championship

Luke Littler was knocked out of the first Players Championship event of the year as he was beaten 6-3 in the third round by Joe Cullen, who went on to lose to Rob Cross in the final.

The 18-year-old PDC world champion averaged just 87.8 while fellow Englishman Cullen managed 95.4.

Cullen threw six 180s as he won five consecutive legs to reach the last 16 of the tournament at the Robin Park Leisure Centre in Wigan.

By contrast Littler uncharacteristically missed 15 doubles and was way below his best.

Another big-name casualty at the same stage was world number five Stephen Bunting, who was beaten 6-4 by Andrew Gilding while James Wade went down 6-1 to Ross Smith.

After beating Dutch duo Gian van Veen and Richard Veenstra, Cullen then defeated world number one Luke Humphries 7-6 in a last-leg decider to reach the final.

But the 35-year-old was well beaten by 2018 world champion Cross, who won 8-3 to claim a 10th Players Championship title.

Dutchman Michael van Gerwen, who beat Littler in the Premier League opener in Belfast last week, is not taking part in this tournament.

There are 34 Players Championship events across the year, with the competition's finals scheduled to be held in Minehead from 21-23 November.