Luke Littler has upped the ante ahead of the World Darts Championship by insisting he will be crowned world champion ‘at least once’ in the future.
The teenage sensation has taken darts by storm over the past 12 months since bursting onto the scene at the age of 16 and has already collected 10 titles.
His earnings have comfortably made him a millionaire after collecting the £150,000 prize at the Grand Slam of Darts, with a crushing 16-3 win over Martin Lukeman in the final.
His triumph demonstrated that ‘The Nuke’ is not low on confidence and he predicted there’s much more to come.
When asked if he would swap his collection of trophies in exchange for a World Championship title, the Runcorn-born youngster refused to entertain the idea.
“I probably wouldn’t because I know myself, I know I’m going to be in the darts game for years and years. Obviously I’m going to back myself to win at least one of them,” Littler said, speaking to talkSPORT.
On his recent form, he added: “I feel like I can beat anyone, I’ve played most of the people competing in the Worlds and most of the time, I’ve got the better of them, I’ve won.
“But it’s just preparation, practice, luck of the draw, see who’s on my side, see who I can potentially meet and yeah, I can’t wait for it.”
With those 10 titles under his belt and listed as one of the favourites for the World Championship crown, there is belief Littler can rise up the PDC Order of Merit as he is currently ranked fifth.
There are even suggestions from some of darts’ greatest players that darts icon Phil Taylor’s haul of 16 world titles may not be beyond Littler given his youth.
But the teenager has dampened expectations of him matching ‘The Power’s’ achievements.
“Everyone wants to try and break that record,” he added. “What he’s done with winning 16 world championships and all of the European titles too, it’s going to take some doing.”
Littler, meanwhile, revealed he won’t have much time to practice before his opener against Rob Cross at the Players Championship Finals, which gets underway from November 22 at Butlin’s Minehead Resort.
“I won’t practice because I know I’ve only got three or four days at home, but we’ll go down to mine the day before and we’ll have preparation for the match with Rob Cross,” he said.
“So I’ll practice then and I’ll do what I do with practice before other games.”
