Luke Littler admits it meant everything to finally be announced to his home audience as World Champion.
After outings in Bahrain and Holland, the 18-year-old returned to his adoring UK public in Milton Keynes and rewarded them with a sparkling 10-minute whitewash of Andy Baetens. Littler now faces James Wade in Saturday’s last 16 ties and insists he’s got his eyes on immediately adding another ranking prize to his CV.
The Nuke said: “It means everything. The crowd was unbelievable. I can’t thank them enough. It felt amazing to hear the walk-on. This is my first time and debut here. It has not sunk in yet being the world champion. I know it should. This is darts, we have to carry on for the next event, given all the travelling that we do. But give it a few months and it will settle in. Obviously, it’d be a new major to add to the list, but there’s a very strong field left in the competition, so it’s fully focused.”
Littler’s hammering of Baetens was rapid and ruthless and he added: “It felt weird because obviously you can’t step out of the gas, you’ve got to just to keep going. With the pace of me and Andy, it was going to go quick.
“I wouldn’t say surprising myself because I know I’ve got the game to just go on and on and in every game.
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