Luke Littler has now won his 10th PDC title in 2024 and after nearly a year of being a professional darts player, he’s revealed there’s just one thing he’s struggled with the most.
The 17 year old won his first PDC major ranking title on Sunday evening after defeating Martin Lukeman 16-3 to win the 2024 Grand Slam of Darts.
Luke Littler now has 10 PDC titles in 2024 as well as his runner-up finish in the 2024 World Darts Championship.
This makes him only the fourth player ever to win 10 or more PDC titles in a season alongside darting legends Peter Wright, Michael van Gerwen and Phil Taylor.
Luke Littler is just the fourth different player ever to win 10 or more PDC titles in a single season. To emulate Phil Taylor, Michael van Gerwen and Peter Wright at the age of 17 in his debut year is astonishing. pic.twitter.com/zopnrbBHgU
— Chris Hammer (@ChrisHammer180) November 17, 2024
Many questioned whether he would be a one-hit wonder after his sensational World Championship run but the Premier League and Grand Slam champion is proving most of those doubters wrong with a world class debut season.
Not only is he winning titles, he’s now ranked 5th in the PDC Order of Merit cementing himself as one of the best players on the planet and he’s setting/breaking records on what seems to be a monthly basis at the minute!
Related – Martin Lukeman warns that Luke Littlers is “going to beat Phil Taylor’s records”
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Luke Littler Says Darts at the Start of the Year Is “Chaos”
Luke Littler joined Sky Sports on Monday evening (from the backseat of a car) to discuss his win at the Grand Slam as well as what his debut season has been like as a professional darts player.
He says he has no issue with the fame, expectations, or opponents but there is one part of being a professional darts player that he struggles with as part of the ProTour.
He said:
“It’s very tough, with the travel.
“Obviously at the backend of the year it’s not so bad because you’re only driving up and down the country.
“You don’t have to get a flight abroad but early in the year it’s absolute chaos.”
As the professional game has grown over the years, additional tournaments and obligations for players have grown in line with this.
Recently, Luke Humphries and Gary Anderson have mentioned how much travel is required to play all the tournaments and Ryan Joyce has said he struggles to improve his ranking because of issues making the European Tour matches.
See all these articles here 👇
- “It takes its toll on you” – Humphries on gruelling darts schedule
- Ryan Joyce reveals ‘unexpected’ reason why he can’t play in more European Tours
- Gary Anderson says he “couldn’t do Premier League again” even if asked
Luke Littler has arguably been forced into playing more than most.
His inclusion in the Premier League raised concerns for a player so young to be on that schedule (though he did top the table and win it so…), but due to his low rank, he’s basically tried to play in all available ranking tournaments to move up the rankings and get seeded for tournaments.
In the World Matchplay and World Grand Prix, he was unseeded and drawn against Michael van Gerwen and Rob Cross in the first round of these tournaments.
MVG and Cross were ranked third and fourth in the world at the time and both gave Littler an early tournament exit.
Now that he’s fifth in the rankings, he won’t need to worry about early draws against top seeded players but we can see why he feels travel was such a struggle.
At 17 years old he was in the Premier League and World Series of Darts which are invitation-only tournaments alongside the ranking events he’s played in.
SInce the start of the year he’s played more PDC Tour matches than any other player at 183 and his 140 matches won are also the highest of any player 👀
Source – Darts Orakel
It’s still not over yet as he heads to Minehead this week for the Players Championship Finals.
See his full interview with Sky Sports Darts below:
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