World champion Luke Littler has been handed a fascinating and eye-catching first-round tie against darts legend Paul Lim at the Bahrain Masters, setting up a classic youth-versus-experience showdown in the Middle East.
The World Series of Darts event gets underway on Thursday, and Littler will be stepping up to the oche for the first time since lifting his second World Championship title. However, this is not the opening match the 18-year-old would have hoped for.
Remarkably, Paul Lim was 52 years old when Littler was born, underlining the extraordinary contrast between the two players. Ahead of the World Championship draw at Alexandra Palace, Littler had publicly named Lim as one of the two opponents he wanted to avoid in the opening round. He managed to dodge the ‘Singapore Slinger’ then, but fate has now paired them together in Bahrain.
Despite the short-format nature of the contest, Littler will still go into the match as the clear favourite. Lim first competed in a World Championship 25 years before Littler was even born, yet he continues to defy age. Last month, the 71-year-old became the oldest player ever to win a World Championship match, before eventually losing to Luke Humphries in the second round.
Littler arrives in Bahrain riding high after recently signing a 10-year, £20 million sponsorship deal with darts manufacturer Target, further cementing his status as the sport’s biggest rising star.
Elsewhere in the Bahrain Masters draw, second seed Luke Humphries will face Abdulla Saeed, while World Championship runner-up Gian van Veen takes on Man Lok Yeung.
Former world champion Gerwyn Price meets Ally Pally crowd favourite Motomu Sakai, defending champion Stephen Bunting plays Ryusei Azemoto, and Danny Noppert is drawn against Basem Mahmood.
The Bahrain Masters promises plenty of intrigue, but all eyes will be on Littler and Lim as two generations of darts collide on the world stage.