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Gian van Veen has sealed revenge on Luke Littler after knocking him out on night 1 of the Premier League at the quarter-final stage. The reigning world champion was far from his best in Newcastle with Van Veen, who Littler beat at Ally Pally to retain his crown, winning 6-4 in legs.

Van Veen and Littler have clashed on several occasions over the last few years and though the former, who was making his Premier League debut, has won his fair share of encounters, he was thumped 7-1 by Littler in the 2026 World Championship final back in January.

Just a month later though, he proved his quality to beat Littler and set up a semi-final clash against the returning Jonny Clayton.

Following the clash, the two exchanged some kind words before Van Veen celebrated having moved into the next round where he would face Clayton.

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The Welshman defeated Josh Rock, who was also making his first appearance in the Premier League, 6-2 in the first quarter-final.

Of the first two encounters, it was Clayton performing the best, with Littler and Van Veen averaging 96.98 and 95.66, respectively.

Littler had 12 attempts to check out but only took four of those while Van Veen was a little bit more clinical as he hit six of his 14 doubles.

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The 23-year-old looked to have missed his chance to win the clash when Littler had the darts after he missed double six, but the teenager was unable to take advantage.

That was certainly not the case when the two faced off at the World Championship final with Littler able to retain his crown in dominant fashion having also become world No.1 the previous November.

Just a few days before the Premier League, Littler beat Luke Humphries to win the World Masters in a thrilling final to claim the £100,000 top prize.

In last year's Premier League final, he was beaten by Humphries but 'Cool hand' endured a difficult second half of 2025 with his World Championship campaign ending at the hands of Van Veen in brutal fashion as he was beaten 5-1 in sets.

Humphries was part of the third quarter-final up against Gerwyn Price with the two evenly-matched throughout their clash with ten consecutive legs won on throw before Humphries ended that to claim a 6-5 triumph.

The last quarter-final is between Michael van Gerwen and Stephen Bunting with Van Veen the likely favourite to win night 1 having knocked out Littler.