Luke Littler will step back on to the stage in Copenhagen on Friday for his first match since winning his second Premier League title, opening the Nordic Darts Masters against Norway's No 1 Cor Dekker. The 19-year-old world No 1 arrives in Denmark just days after beating Luke Humphries in a last-leg decider at The O2.
That final, settled after Littler averaged 111.67, underlined why the teenager's return matters immediately. He said he could not wait to have some down time before getting back to the oche next week, but the World Series of Darts stops for no one and the Forum Copenhagen will host a 16-player field looking to make the most of his brief pause.
Littler is also hunting a second World Series of Darts title of 2026 after winning the inaugural Riyadh Season Saudi Arabia Darts Masters in January. The Premier League win was his first major title, and he said it meant the world and hoped it would prove a turning point after one of those victories he felt he simply had to get over the line.
Stephen Bunting is the man trying to stand in the way. He won in Copenhagen last year, beating Oskar Lukasiak, Jonny Clayton, Nathan Aspinall and Rob Cross on the way, and he now wants to become the first player to retain the Nordic Darts Masters title in the Danish capital. He called it a wonderful city and a beautiful place, and said the trophy is one of the nicest to win in the sport.
But Bunting also has a point to answer after consecutive quarter-final exits in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia in January, a reminder that holding form across the World Series is harder than lifting a single trophy. He has been paired with Viktor Tingstrom in his opening match, while Littler's early test against Dekker gives the night in Forum Copenhagen the sort of opening that can change the mood of a tournament fast.
The draw leaves the same question hanging over Friday's start: whether Bunting can do what no player has done here before, or whether Littler's latest run of momentum turns Copenhagen into another stop on his climb.
