Arabic version: هزيمة أمام دولان تعرقل مساعي ليتلر لبلوغ النهائيات
According to BBC News, Luke Littler’s attempt to qualify for the Players Championship finals suffered another setback when Brendan Dolan beat him in the PC28 semi-finals in Leicester.
The world champion had progressed further than at Tuesday’s PC27, where he lost to Jermaine Wattimena in the quarter-finals. On Wednesday, the 19-year-old defeated Benjamin Pratnemer, Martin Schindler and Krzysztof Ratajski before Northern Ireland’s Dolan stopped him in the last four.
Fellow Englishman Luke Humphries went on to claim the PC28 title, beating Dolan 8-6 in the final. Humphries, the world number two, said Littler had been “by far the best player in the last 18 months” and deserved the world number one position.
Littler rose from 141st to 125th in the order of merit after earning £10,500 and posted on Instagram: “We are so on the move.” However, he remains £16,750 behind 64th-placed Shane McGuirk, with only the top 64 qualifying for November’s finals in Minehead.
Having skipped the first 26 events to manage his schedule, Littler has six tournaments remaining to improve his position. The projected qualifying cutoff is expected to exceed £30,000 after all 34 events, and he might travel to Den Bosch next month despite previously saying he intended to play only UK events. The Leicester events on 4 and 5 November complete qualification.
