Luke Littler has been criticised for his comments about Mike De Decker at the World Grand Prix, a tournament where the 18-year-old world champion claimed victory. Littler defeated Luke Humphries in the final, but got his campaign underway against De Decker, who was the defending champion in Leicester.
De Decker defeated Humphries a year ago in the ‘double in, double out’ competition, bagging £600,000 and announcing himself as an elite player with his first major title win. The Belgian has had a stellar 12 months since and many fancied him to upset Littler.
But Littler reached the quarter-finals with a convincing 3-0 victory. He fittingly wrapped up victory with a 170 checkout as his opponent missed 41 doubles in 11 legs as part of a below-par performance.
The teenager then described the match as “boring” and expected the defending champion to put up more of a fight.
“I said to myself, ‘let’s leave with a big one’,” Littler said on Sky Sports. “Mike didn’t play his best so I had to jump on it and lead early. This tournament is brutal. We have seen some shocks but I had to do my job.
“I am hitting the double 20 and as a player you can feel that nine-darter coming…”
He later added: “Mike didn’t play his best there and I just had to plod along. It was a bit boring at times because I expected something from the reigning champion and I just had to do a job.
“If my opponent is playing as good as me on the stage I’m obviously going to match it. He’s going to match me but Mike just didn’t show up there.”
But those comments have not gone down well everywhere and former darts star Vincent van der Voort has lambasted Littler for his reaction.
“That’s just a tap on the chin you give someone like De Decker,” Van der Voort said on the Darts Draait Door podcast. “You don’t have to say that. It’s inappropriate and not very respectful.
“At the Grand Slam, Littler actually needed the crowd to beat De Decker.
“And then to make comments like that about someone who won a tournament just last year, putting him down like that, I don’t like it. But at the same time, it adds a bit of spice. Hopefully De Decker will take that personally and go into their next match with fire in his belly.
“There’s no shame in De Decker losing heavily to Littler. He’s just unbelievably good right now.”