Luke Littler knows he already has a target on his back
Luke Littler is excited to be involved at the Dutch Darts Masters this week, but knows he already has players looking for revenge on him, even at this early stage of his career.
The 17-year-old followed up his amazing run to the World Darts Championship final by winning the Bahrain Darts Masters last week.
He will try and keep up this immense form in Den Bosch on January 26-27 as he hunts down another title on the World Series.
It is the same eight PDC representatives in Holland as Bahrain – Luke Humphries, Michael van Gerwen, Michael Smith, Nathan Aspinall, Gerwyn Price, Rob Cross, Peter Wright and Littler – but the local competitors will be toughter.
The Benelux representatives are Danny Noppert, Dirk van Duijvenbode, Dimitri Van den Bergh, Raymond van Barneveld, Jermaine Wattimena, Gian van Veen, Vincent van der Voort and Kevin Doets and Littler already has history with a couple of them.
The Nuke downed Van Barneveld at Alexandra Palace last month, while he beat Van Veen to win the PDC World Youth Championship in November, so if he draws either then he will expect them to be highly motivated.
‘The line-up’s really good for the Dutch qualifiers,’ Littler told Sky Sports. ‘Whether Gian wants revenge, whether Raymond wants revenge, I’ll happily play either of those two. You’ve got Vincent van der Voort, Kevin Doets, Jermaine Wattimena, Dimi is in there.
‘The line-up’s going to be great and it’s going to be good this week.’
Littler has already landed his first senior title in the PDC (Picture: ITV)
His triumph in Bahrain was superb, hitting a 9-darter on the way to beating Nathan Aspinall in the quarter-finals, then downing Gerwyn Price and Michael van Gerwen to lift the trophy.
‘It was just a new experience, a new stage to play on. You could hear everything in the crowd, I had to try and block it out,’ he said. ‘It was good to go over there and come out as the champion
‘I know as soon as I get on that stage I’ll settle in, somehow, somewhere and hopefully get over the line. I get so excited that I’ll play on that stage or this stage.’
MORE : Luke Littler vs Luke Humphries meet again on Premier League Darts opening night
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Littler is hunting down another World Series title.