Luke Littler has claimed that he gets booed in Germany because the crowd do not like that he is English. The world champion was heckled during the Premier League’s visit to Berlin last week and recalls receiving a negative reception in Hildesheim on the European Tour.

Littler suffered a rare quarter-final defeat on night nine of the Premier League. He was comfortably beaten 6-2 by Chris Dobey and seemed affected by boos from the Berlin crowd. The 18-year-old, who leads the Premier League leaderboard by six points, navigated his walk-on without any negativity but says the boos started when he climbed on stage. Littler believes he was targeted because he is English.

Speaking to Oche180, Littler said: “I had a little headloss moment, as some of us players do. I just don’t get it and I can’t explain it. Obviously you do your walk-on but then as soon as I got on stage I started getting booed.

“I got booed in Hildesheim last year against Peter Wright on the European Tour. I was flying and then they started booing me and I lost. Even when I went one-nil up, they still didn’t like it. He then went 5-1 up and, yeah, one of them moments.

“It’s something we’ve all got to deal with. For myself, obviously, there are certain people in the crowd who aim it at certain players. Me and Luke Humphries, we get it quite a lot. Obviously, the Germans musn’t like us English.”

Littler is generally received positively by fans in the UK, although he has been booed in Liverpool - having been open about his support for Manchester United. However, he was also jeered in Newcastle ahead of walking on stage to face Stephen Bunting on Premier League night eight.

Providing an emphatic response to that atmosphere, Littler went on to win 6-0 before beating Rob Cross and Luke Humphries to claim a fourth nightly triumph. He comfortably sits top of the leaderboard, six points ahead of Humphries, who he beat in last year's play-off final.

It would take a remarkable downturn in form for Littler to miss out on the play-offs in May again this year. He will fancy his chances of a World Championship-Premier League double.

Littler recently revealed that he has been skipping tournaments to manage his workload. The teenager has skipped the last two European Tour events and has repeatedly said that he barely practices around tournaments.