DartsNews Podcast | “Your best chance to beat him is in the first round... before he’s settled” – Luke Littler facing immediate World Matchplay banana-skin

Luke Littler heads to Blackpool as the obvious World Matchplay favourite. The defending champion is now expected to win almost every tournament he enters, but his opener against Niko Springer still gives the Winter Gardens an immediate test of that dominance.

Littler's season has already made the idea of a clean sweep of the sport's biggest ranking titles feel realistic, rather than ridiculous.

Speaking on the DartsNews Podcast ahead of the World Matchplay, Kieran Wood and Nicolas Gayer looked at both sides of that position: the scale of what Littler is chasing, and whether the first round remains the one place where even the strongest favourite can be caught cold.

Littler arrives in Blackpool with the Phil Taylor Trophy already in his possession and a level of expectation that now follows him into every event. For Wood, that status is no longer up for much debate. “Littler is the favourite of any tournament he turns up to at the moment, pretty much,” he said.

After his latest surge through the biggest titles, the conversation has moved beyond whether Littler can handle elite opposition. The question now is how far this run can go, and whether the rest of the field can stop him before another major disappears from the calendar.

“He’s going for the clean sweep of title wins, which would be something completely ridiculous if you just said that a few years ago, given the competitive nature that was at the top end of darts at the time,” Wood continued.

Littler has already suggested that if he wins the Matchplay, he could return to Players Championship events in an attempt to qualify for Minehead and keep that wider clean sweep alive.

Gayer admitted that possibility would make Littler’s Blackpool week even more intriguing. “I would actually like to see him win the Matchplay because I would like to see that little side quest going on with him heading back to the Pro Tours,” he said. “I’m interested in seeing how long it actually takes him to qualify, if it’s actually that easy for him just to turn up, get two titles under the belt and win two or three events in a row.”

The first obstacle is Springer, one of two German players in the field alongside Martin Schindler. The draw could hardly have been tougher for the German debutant, but it does at least give him the first swing at the player everyone else is trying to catch.

Wood compared the situation to the way players once spoke about facing Phil Taylor at major tournaments. “They always used to say with Phil Taylor that if you’re going to beat him in one of these tournaments, you beat him in the first round before he’s settled in,” he said. “So if Niko Springer is going to do it, he’s got as good a chance as anyone. Shortest format, first game of the tournament. But I can’t really see it happening.”

Gayer agreed that even German bias could not make a Springer upset feel likely. The Matchplay has also been a brutal tournament for German players historically, with the only win coming through Max Hopp, who beat Dave Chisnall in 2019.

Springer now runs straight into Littler, while Schindler has been drawn against Gerwyn Price. Gayer admitted the wait for a second German Matchplay win may well continue. “They could have had a bit of an easier draw,” Wood added with a laugh.

Gayer still sees Littler’s biggest danger arriving much deeper in the tournament. “The actual only potential I see him not winning the tournament lies in the final for me,” he said, with Luke Humphries the name he later picked to beat Littler in a possible title match.

Wood also struggled to find many obvious traps in Littler’s section of the draw. If he comes through Springer, he faces Nathan Aspinall or Joe Cullen, before a possible quarter-final against names including Josh Rock, Luke Woodhouse, Stephen Bunting or Niels Zonneveld. “You expect him really to beat them in the current form they’ve got,” Wood said of the early route. “It would be a big surprise if he lost over that format.”

Springer has the earliest possible chance to test Littler, and the opening round is still the point where even the strongest favourite has least time to settle. Beyond that, the route already carries the kind of expectation Littler has built for himself: get through the first night, grow into Blackpool, and force everyone else to find a way of stopping another title run.