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Luke Littler ‘not under any pressure’ despite disappointing Premier League start
Luke Littler is not feeling any pressure after losing his opening match in the Premier League last week.
The 19-year-old was beaten on night one in Newcastle by Gian van Veen, who gained some revenge for his heavy World Championship final defeat in January.
Things do not get much easier for Littler in Antwerp on Thursday as he faces Luke Humphries in the opening match.
The pair have embarked on a great rivalry in the last two years and faced each other nine times in last season’s tournament alone.
Littler most recently beat Humphries in the World Masters final at the start of the month, where his opponent called him “the greatest dart player to ever live”.
Littler was due to speak to the media on Wednesday afternoon but the press conference was cancelled at short notice, without reason.
However, in a short interview with Sky Sports, he said: “Every stage is different in my opinion.
“I’m not under any pressure and I don’t need to put pressure on myself.
“I know I lost to Gian on night one, but last year I lost to Michael van Gerwen as well.
“There’s still 15 weeks left, so as long as I get into the top four, that’s all that matters.”
Van Veen believes ending his Littler hoodoo last week will set him up for a successful campaign.
The Dutchman was soundly beaten in the final at Alexandra Palace in January and then went down to him in the Saudi Arabia Masters later in the month.
But he defeated Littler in his Premier League debut before going on to lose the final against Van Gerwen.
Van Veen said: “I think the most important part is to win your first game, especially playing in this for the first time.
“It’s something you don’t want to do, spend three, four weeks not winning any games, and then it starts getting to you.
“So I think that was the most important part. But also to get one over Littler.
“I said it last week as well. Luke Littler is not someone you want to lose five or six matches in a row against, because then next time he will be 2-0 up against you already.
“So you need to bite back at him a couple of times. That’s what I did last week. So I think that’s going to help my campaign for the coming weeks as well.”
Van Veen will face off against Gerwyn Price, Van Gerwen takes on Josh Rock and Jonny Clayton versus Stephen Bunting completes the quarter-final line-up.
