"One day that bubble will burst and then we are going to see the real Luke Littler" - Kim Huybrechts is curious to see how teen sensation will handle disappointments

For Luke Littler, his debut World Matchplay campaign was ended at the first hurdle. The 17-year-old Englishman lost in the opening round to Michael van Gerwen despite averaging over 100 at the Winter Gardens, Blackpool.

Littler, who has already clinched a major title with this year's Premier League Darts, lost out to Michael van Gerwen 10-6 in the opening round of the 2024 World Matchplay. 'The Nuke' also indicated on the sidelines of that tournament that his relationship was on the rocks. He was also forced to ask his followers on social media to stop bombarding his former girlfriend with hateful messages.

"That's obviously pretty annoying," Kim Huybrechts analyses of Littler's current situation to the podcast'Double Top'. "Things like that are no fun anyway and then when you get various hateful comments on social media at private situations, it's just particularly sad. Nowadays you can't do good for anyone on social media, I've experienced that myself many times. If you win, your opponent's fans are angry with you and if you lose you get threats from gamblers who are angry because they lost money."

"Somehow, of course, you have to learn to deal with that," Huybrechts continued. "But when you're in a slump nobody likes to read what a jellyfish you are. I always give the advice not to read too much on social media, but somewhere you always get something from it."

For Littler the past six months went like a dream, after his run to the final at the 2024 World Darts Championship, he won a Players Championship, two tournaments of the European Tour and two tournaments of the World Series of Darts. The crowning glory was however, the aforementioned Premier League Darts title win. "He's been on cloud nine for a while, a lot of people thought this would end sooner, me too by the way," Huybrechts concludes. "For now, he is still on that cloud, but one day that bubble will be burst and then we are going to see the real Littler. He is going to experience a lot of ups and downs in his career anyway, so it remains to be seen how he is going to deal with that."