ON nights like this, it is clear to see why he is called ‘The Nuke’.

Luke Littler annihilated Jermaine Wattimena 16-2 in Wolverhampton to reach Sunday’s semi-finals on his debut in the Mr Vegas Grand Slam of Darts.

The Warrington superstar was simply irresistible, thundering home a dozen 180s, hitting 62 per cent of his doubles, achieving four ton-plus checkouts and going within a whisker of a magical nine-darter.

Wattimena couldn’t live with the 17-year-old, and probably nobody else could have either.

It was the highest defeat ever inflicted on a player at this stage of the Grand Slam of Darts and next he will have a first ever meeting with Scottish legend Gary Anderson.

‘The Nuke’, hunting his 10th title of his maiden year as a professional, hit top gear from his first throw and rarely relented.

After holding throw for a 1-0 lead, he directed in eight perfect arrows but his ninth dart fell a centimetre below the double 12 that the crowd was baying for.

He went into the first break with a 4-1 lead, having thrown seven of his 180s by that point.

If Wattimena was hoping the stoppage would spoil his opponent’s rhythm he was sadly mistaken as Littler broke throw for a second time with a wonderful 167 finish.

Two 180s from Wattimena in the next leg led to him winning his second and final leg, while Littler’s response was to break the Dutchman’s throw again with a 104 checkout.

At this point ‘The Nuke’ was averaging 109 and although the next leg was the first in which he hadn’t produced a maximum he was still good enough to stretch out to 72.

A stunning treble 19, treble 19 and bull 164 finish took them into the second break with Littler halfway to the desired leg score.

The third period included checkouts of 72, 80 and 70 for the Premier League champion.

Littler started the fourth period with five perfect darts on his way to going 14-2 ahead and then after a routine hold of throw he completed the win with a stylish 110 checkout.

“I felt very confident, I played so well, I’m so happy,” said Littler.

He will play Anderson in Sunday afternoon’s second semi-final, scheduled to start at 3pm.

The flying Scotsman overcame Dutchman Gian Van Veen 16-14 in Saturday night's second semi-final.

Anderson labelled Littler's performance against Wattimena as 'different gravy' and when asked how he can set out to stop the Warringtonian from spoiling his own Grand Slam dreams he said with a big grin: "I might just have to give him a hard kick in the shin before we get out there!"

The other semi-final will be contested between surprise acts Mickey Mansell and Martin Lukeman.

And then Sunday night's final will start at 7.45pm.

All games are now the best of 31 legs, with the winner set to take home £150,000.

The action is being shown live on Sky Sports.