Gian van Veen accused Luke Littler of being “out of order” after an ill-tempered spat between the pair at the Premier League in Manchester.
Littler’s hopes of claiming a third straight Premier League win ended prematurely with a 6-5 quarter-final loss to Van Veen on home soil at the AO Arena.
But the headlines centred around a fiery ending to the contest, when Littler took exception to Van Veen turning towards the crowd as the Dutchman tried to clinch a notable victory, only to fluff his lines going for double 15.
Littler gestured angrily at his opponent and geed up the crowd but surprisingly blew his own chance of winning.
Littler then mimicked crying towards Van Veen, who took out double six to bring the contest to a close.
The pair exchanged a brief handshake, but Van Veen was unhappy with the world No 1, telling Sky Sports: “I’m on 90, I miss double 15 on the inside, and then I see him celebrating towards the crowd. I don’t think that’s normal.
“And then he also makes that crying gesture. He’s a fantastic darts player, but today he showed he’s not a good loser. Celebrating a miss from your opponent, that really annoys me.
“He was celebrating me missing double 15. That’s out of order. I was fuming about that.”
The 23-year-old added: “I love Luke to bits, he’s a fantastic player and guy for the sport and to see all the attention he’s brought to it is phenomenal, but this is also part of it as well and today was my day.”
Littler took to Instagram in response, posting quotes from Van Veen accompanied by three crying-with-laughter emojis.
After a slow start to the season, Littler had surged to the top of the standings with back-to-back victories in Dublin and Berlin.
Van Veen had not won a match since week four of the competition and is still recovering from the kidney stones that forced him to sit out Dublin.
But he served notice of his intent with a bullseye to seal a 128 checkout for a break of throw in the third leg and just missed a double five that would have opened up a 5-1 lead.
Littler, who hails from nearby Warrington and is a big Manchester United fan, recovered to 4-3 and it appeared Van Veen’s chance might have gone when he failed to land a double for the match at 5-3.
Back came the world champion to level, but for once he could not find the answers when it came to the crunch.
Van Veen put the confrontation behind him with another excellent performance to beat Josh Rock 6-3 in the semi-finals but lost out to an inspired Gerwyn Price 6-2 in the final.
The Welshman had previously beaten Luke Humphries and Stephen Bunting by the same scoreline and is up to second in the table, two points behind Littler.
Price imitated Littler’s fishing celebration when he took out a 170 checkout in the third leg against Bunting and he said afterwards: “Just a bit of fun, nothing too out of order I don’t think.”
Price had sympathy for Littler regarding his reaction to Van Veen, saying: “Things like this happen in darts. I’m sure in a couple of weeks it’ll be done and dusted.
“Emotions are up and down and people get hyped up. I’ve been there, the backlash off it. Probably Luke will have a little bit of it. I feel for the kid at the minute.
“I’ve won tonight, that’s all I’m bothered about. Five points, £10,000 in the bank and I’m up to number two above Jonny (Clayton), so I’m happy.”
