A MAGICAL 10TH title in his first year as a darts professional could be on the cards for Luke ‘The Nuke’ Littler this weekend.

Warrington’s 17-year-old global superstar faces Dutchman James Wattimena in the quarter-finals of the Mr Vegas Grand Slam of Darts in Wolverhampton tonight, with the prospect of semi-finals and then the title decider to follow tomorrow.

The matches get longer from here, all played over 31 legs, with Sunday night’s winner set to pocket £150,000 prize money.

Here we take a look at what’s potentially ahead for ‘The Nuke’:

How have Luke Littler and James Wattimena reached the quarter-finals of the Mr Vegas Grand Slam of Darts?

Both Littler and Wattimena were taken to the wire by their opponents in the last 16 on Thursday night.

‘The Nuke’ produced a thrilling fightback from 8-4 down to beat Belgian Mike de Decker 10-9 in a final leg shoot-out.

De Decker is a player that 36-year-old Wattimena beat 5-2 in the group stage earlier this week when qualifying for the knockout stage.

The Dutchman came through a similarly epic contest with another Belgian, Dimitri Van den Burgh, 10-9 in his last-16 contest.

And similarly, Little defeated UK Open champion Van den Burgh 5-1 in the second of his group games

What has Littler and Wattimena's form been like recently?

Littler made early exits from the three previous televised tournaments but found his sparkling form in the Czech Open last month, only to be stopped by a similarly on-song world champion Luke Humphries in the semi-finals.

His previous title success was in the World Series of Darts Finals in September when he smashed St Helens rival Michael Smith 11-4.

‘The Nuke’ was hot during the group stage of the Grand Slam, with his averages above 105 for three darts and blowing away his opponents.

He then showed against De Decker that he has the ability to dig himself out of a hole too and pull off a win from behind.

Wattimena, who is nicknamed ‘The Machine Gun’ has been a PDC professional since 2014 and is yet to win a televised title.

He came very close last month when he was a shock finalist in the European Championship, but missed out to Ritchie Edhouse who was also an unexpected player to reach the showdown in Dortmund.

As far as years go, Wattimena is having one of his top three in terms of win percentages.

Littler has the better scoring average in this tournament so far, 106.16 compared to 101, while they have exactly the same percentage in terms of doubles success for checking out – 55.56.

Have Littler and Wattimena played each other before?

Twice. And Littler won them both convincingly.

Both meetings came in European Tour events this year.

‘The Nuke’ won 6-1 in the Flanders Open in September, before bowing out himself in the next round.

But in March the Warringtonian won 6-2 in the quarter-finals of the Belgian Darts Open.

That was Littler’s European Tour debut and he went on to win the tournament, beating Rob Cross in the final.

This is Littler’s debut in the Grand Slam of Darts and he faces Wattimena again in the quarter-finals – can history repeat itself?

What time are Littler and Wattimena due on stage and where can I watch it?

Littler and Wattimena face off in the first of tonight’s quarter-finals, which is scheduled to start at 7.15pm.

All of the Grand Slam of Darts action is being broadcast live by Sky Sports.

Who will the winner go on to play in the semi-finals?

Whoever is victorious tonight, will face the winner of tonight’s second quarter-final in Sunday afternoon’s semi-finals. So that will be either Gian van Veen or Gary Anderson.

Littler has had the crowd behind him and singing his name all week, so what does he think about that?

“It’s a crazy feeling,” he said. “I can’t thank them enough. Hopefully on Saturday they can be even better.”