Luke Littler paid the ultimate price for his lack of preparation after the darts sensation's defeat to Stephen Bunting at the Dutch Masters on Saturday.

The 18-year-old faced Bunting in the semi-finals in the Netherlands after beating Michael van Gerwen in the last eight.

Despite taking 2-0 and 3-1 leads early on, the Nuke was just unable to shake off his opponent as Bunting pulled out all the stops.

The Englishman, 39, took him all the way to the deciding leg at 6-6 and he opened up a sizeable lead in the leg, before Littler dug out a maximum 180 to get himself onto a finish.

But with 84 left, Bunting found a treble 19 and made no mistake in landing the double 12 to clinch the tie, denying Littler the chance to make the final.

While Bunting is now on course to make it back-to-back Masters' successes in Den Bosch this weekend, Littler will be left to lick his wounds after a surprise defeat.

The teenager took some well-deserved downtime to celebrate his 18th birthday on January 20 with his parents back in Warrington, where he enjoyed fish and chips as well as gaming with his friends on a live stream.

But the 18-year-old may have paid a heavy price for his time off after admitting he hadn't picked up a dart since the Bahrain Darts Masters earlier this month.

"I've not picked up a dart since Bahrain. I've just had some time to relax and celebrate my 18th birthday on Tuesday," Littler said before his first-round match.

"I just want to win that first game. I'd love to pick up a second title in 2025."

There is nothing to suggest that the newly-crowned world champion was being complacent in his preparation - few would begrudge him taking some time off to celebrate a landmark birthday.

But given that Littler usually looks so confident at the oche, his lack of practice was evident after scraping through the earlier rounds.

Littler was not at his best but did enough to beat Belgian opponent Dimitri van den Bergh 6-4 in the first round of the tournament, where 16 players go head-to-head before the competition is whittled down to the quarters, semis and final on Saturday.

He then swept aside Van Gerwen, who suffered a bone fracture hours before his match, in a rematch of their World Championship final encounter.

But top seed Bunting had already demonstrated his credentials with an impressive win over Raymond van Barneveld in the quarters to set up his tie with Littler.

And after knocking out the top-ranked players in the world, his confidence will be sky-high as he prepares to meet Rob Cross, who beat Gerwyn Price 7-3 in the other semi-final.