World Darts Championship: Luke Littler downplays prospect of breaking Phil Taylor’s record before winning start of title defense | Darts News

Luke Littler believes he may never break Phil Taylor’s record for world darts championship titles, despite a winning start to his title defense at Alexandra Palace.

The world number 1, looking to emulate Taylor, Adrian Lewis and Gary Anderson by winning back-to-back world championships, posted seven maximums and averaged 101.54 in a straight-sets victory over Darius Labanauskas on opening night.

‘The Nuke’ reached the final in his first two appearances at the World Darts Championship, finishing second to Luke Humphries on his debut before winning the Sid Waddell Trophy by beating Michael van Gerwen in last year’s showpiece.

Littler said earlier this year that he had “the ability” to chase Taylor’s tally of 16 world championships, including 14 at the PDC, but has since played down the prospect of breaking that record total.

When asked if he had a target number of world championship titles, Littler told Sky Sports before his victory: “Not in my head, no. The talk is always ‘is he going to beat Phil Taylor’s record?’ Personally, I don’t think anyone will.

“I don’t think I will. In fact, I haven’t thought about how much [world titles] is what I want. I’m sure one day it will come and I’ll pick a number.”

Littler has enjoyed a remarkable 12 months since World Championship glory – adding televised titles at the UK Open, World Matchplay, World Grand Prix, Grand Slam of Darts and Players Championship Finals, but is hoping for more success at Alexandra Palace.

“This [winning a second title] is (the most important),” Littler added. It’s been a decade since someone went back-to-back, and that was Gary Anderson, so being the fourth player back in a row would mean everything.

“I didn’t win four majors this year so it was a really good year. I was gutted to lose the Premier League to Luke. [Humphries]but there’s always next year to check off the ones I don’t have.”

Littler: It certainly wasn’t easy!

Littler was taken to the finals in the first two sets by Labanauskas, who opened with a check-out of 130, before consecutive finishes of over a ton in the third set helped “The Nuke” close out the victory and book a meeting against Belgian Mario Vandenbogaerde or Welsh qualifier David Davies.

“He [beating Labanauskas] It certainly wasn’t easy”, Littler told Sky Sports. “Looking at the statistics, it wasn’t like that but I’m happy!”

Littler later added in his press conference: “The toughest game is over and we will be back in 10 days. I didn’t put too much pressure on myself and the performance showed.

“Coming into the match I didn’t want to make a statement or not, I just wanted to get through the first round. The performance didn’t look like it [a statement] but I will take all the positives.

“I won’t go back on it, it’s a job well done, I’m very happy with the performance. I think I’ll relax until Tuesday, go watch Manchester United on Monday against Bournemouth and then I’ll spend a few hours there.”

What’s next?

The World Darts Championship continues on Friday December 12 with two exceptional first round sessions.

The afternoon session is live from 12:30 p.m. and sees Niels Zonneveld v Haupai Puha, Ian White v Mervyn King, Ryan Searle v Chris Landman and Rob Cross v Cor Dekker.

Then, in the evening session, Ross Smith takes on Andreas Harrysson, Ricky Evans takes on Man Lok Leung, Gian van Veen plays Cristo Reyes and Damon Heta takes on Steve Lennon.

Who will win the Paddy Power World Darts Championship? Watch every match exclusively live until January 3 on Sky Sports’ dedicated darts channel (Sky channel 407). Stream darts and many other top sports with NOW.