Luke Littler and Josh Rock will collide in a seismic quarter-final tussle on Thursday evening at the Betfred World Matchplay. The pair faced each other in one of the greatest Winter Gardens matches of recent memory in last year’s semi-final, and they will lock horns once again in the quarter-finals. Littler triumphed 17-14 in 2025 […]
Luke Littler and Josh Rock will collide in a seismic quarter-final tussle on Thursday evening at the Betfred World Matchplay.
The pair faced each other in one of the greatest Winter Gardens matches of recent memory in last year’s semi-final, and they will lock horns once again in the quarter-finals.
Littler triumphed 17-14 in 2025 after a sublime contest that saw the World Champion hit a nine-darter and come back from 6-1 down against the Northern Irishman.
This year, the world number one has already struck another Winter Gardens perfect leg against Nathan Aspinall in round two, even going one dart short of striking a second nine-darter just three legs later.
“When I was practising backstage I was playing okay. But the nine-darter just happened!” confessed Littler, who averaged 113.68 in his brilliant match against Aspinall.
“To go on and wire the double 15, that was really gutting to not hit two in a game.
“I’m just glad to take part in such an amazing game.”
Littler will now gear up for a quarter-final clash with Rock, in an extended best-of-31 legs format.
After averages of over 109 and 113 against Niko Springer and Aspinall respectively, the World Champion enters the match expecting more history-breaking from both himself and his opponent.
“If Josh does win, I know I’m in for another great game with him,” said Littler, speaking before Rock took on Stephen Bunting.
“He said after his opening game, no one wants it more than him. I’ll have a close watch of his match against Bunting and see how it goes down.
“I think I was at one point performing above the highest average Phil [Taylor] had, so that record is there to be broken. Hopefully on Thursday I can produce that again.”
Rock, meanwhile, has produced subtler performances to reach the last eight stage, seeing off Luke Woodhouse and Bunting by margins of 10-4 and 11-6 respectively.
The Northern Irishman is hoping to make a second successive semi-final in Blackpool, and has also vowed to produce fireworks in his Winter Gardens rematch against Littler.
“I’m going to give it my all against Luke [Littler], because I’m here to win this title,” insisted Rock, who was eliminated by the world number one last year despite averaging north of 104.
“It was a fantastic game [against Littler last year]. I’d never won a game at the Matchplay until last year, so it was nice to get that monkey off my back.
“Bring it on, hopefully I can bring home the title.”