Luke Littler clinches New Zealand Masters crown with victory over Humphries

Teenage sensation Luke Littler continued his remarkable rise by defeating reigning champion Luke Humphries 8-4 to claim the New Zealand Masters title in Auckland, securing back-to-back World Series triumphs after his win in Australia last week, Sport360NG reports.

The 18-year-old was in blistering form throughout Saturday’s competition, sweeping aside Mike de Decker 6-2 in the quarter-finals before overpowering Gerwyn Price 7-2 in the last four to set up another meeting with world number one Humphries.

Littler stormed into a 3-0 advantage in the final and, despite Humphries briefly closing the gap to 3-2, the teenager reasserted control by reeling off three straight legs to move 6-3 clear. He eventually closed out an 8-4 success with a performance he described as “untouchable.”

“It couldn’t have gone any better, the scoring, the doubles, everything clicked,” said Littler, who posted a stunning 115.02 average, the highest ever recorded in a World Series final.

The victory marked his fourth straight win over Humphries, nudging him ahead 8-7 in their career head-to-head record.

“I was really good tonight and there wasn’t much he could do,” Littler added. “I was actually disappointed being 4-2 up because it could have been 5-1 or 6-0. Now I just want to keep winning, next stop is Antwerp and hopefully I can make it four titles in a row.”