World champion Luke Littler was knocked out of the Bahrain Masters quarter-finals by Gerwyn Price for the second year in a row as his 21-match winning streak came to an end.
It is Littler’s first defeat since losing in the last 32 of the Players Championship 34 on 30 October.
His subsequent unbeaten run led to him becoming world number one and capturing the Grand Slam of Darts, his first Players Championship title and a second PDC World Championship.
Littler was in eye-catching form on Thursday when he thrashed veteran Paul Lim on his first trip to the oche since retaining his world title earlier this month.
But the 19-year-old Englishman missed darts at key moments in the last eight on Friday, finishing with an average of 94.04 to…