Conquering the world is never easy, but does it have to feel this hard? Littler said after Monday night’s victory over Ryan Joyce he found a “10th gear”. Formula 1 cars only have eight.
Luke Littler's toughest opponent is the expectation of perfection
Read MoreThe disjointed nature of set play can give matches the feeling of a great war played out of an hour, each leg a daring foray behind enemy lines. This was dogged and brutal and exhausting, every action met by an equally and oppositely destructive reaction.
But he has faltered a tad on the outer ring of late, and this is where Relentless was always going to match or better him. Littler wins games by brute force, shooting first and asking questions later. Playing against him presents a similar mental challenge to boxing – how to breathe and focus when you’re being repeatedly hit in the face.
And yet, with the double 12 which has so often deserted him in recent nine-dart attempts, the 17-year-old lived to fight another day, producing his best when it mattered most, as he so often does. Three games lie between him and the Sid Waddell Trophy, and his regular partner-in-genius Luke Humphries will be watching from home after defeat by Peter Wright.
Just compare it to his celebrations a year prior, an innocent mixture of shock and joy.
The deals, drives and dollars that changed Luke Littler's life
Read MoreAfter toppling the great Raymond van Barneveld, he looked up to the darting gods and believed they were looking back. Brendan Dolan got a head-bob so nonchalant most would’ve missed it. In the semi-final dispatching of Rob Cross, it was another searching stare to the stars.
Three former world champions and three more ranking major winners remain in the field. Unseeded Callan Rydz is the only relative unknown remaining, although he has produced the best individual performance of this tournament and also reached the last eight in 2022.
Michael van Gerwen is now second favourite, perhaps the only man remaining who could genuinely match Littler at his best, whose talent is in a similar strata.
Stephen Bunting is the only other player in the draw to have won a TV major this year, and he looks cheerfully ominous, like a teddy bear who’s surreptitiously trying to kill you. Either he or Wright would be Littler’s semi-final opponent.
But the boy wonder’s premier adversary remains the weight of expectation and his own mind. The Sid Waddell Trophy is now his to lose.
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