"The format doesn't matter – he's so far ahead of everyone bar Luke Humphries" - Wayne Mardle raves about World Championship favourite Luke Littler

Luke Littler could not have asked for a cleaner start to his PDC World Darts Championship title defence. On opening night at Alexandra Palace, the reigning champion eased through a 3-0 win over Darius Labanauskas, keeping his campaign moving before the tournament had even had time to settle.

And ahead of the event, Wayne Mardle sounded convinced that Littler has moved beyond the usual early-round danger zone that comes with a longer format and a longer fortnight.

Speaking to Online Darts, Mardle argued that the old storyline about catching Littler early has stopped applying. “I’ve been saying that and this has only come about the last four or five tournaments,” he said. “Do you remember when the narrative was, especially with Luke Littler, ‘Get him early, because you won’t get him late because of the format’?”

Mardle’s view now is blunt. “I’m now starting to believe the format doesn’t matter, really. I just think that he’s so far ahead of everyone barring Luke Humphries.”

That is not a prediction built on romance or hype. It is a read on what Mardle believes Littler is doing to opponents over the opening phase of matches, even when the distance is not huge. “I just think that he’s got everyone where he wants them right now,” he said. “And if Humphries plays well, no one can match those two scoring. They just can’t.”

Mardle framed this World Championship as a tournament where the obvious names can still be vulnerable in one-off moments, but where beating Littler or Humphries is only half the job.

“It’s hard to say that someone’s going to rattle through the pair of them,” he said. “They might get beat individually and the one that beats them gets beat. And in the end whoever beats them ends up getting beat and we come up with a random winner.”

It is a warning that the bracket can open up even if the best player loses, because the level required to take out a favourite can be hard to reproduce again two days later.

Mardle also returned to what he sees as the separating factor in Littler’s game when the noise rises and the finishing line starts to appear. “Only Phil Taylor and Michael van Gerwen in my opinion have handled pressure as well as what I think Luke is doing now,” he said. “And that’s not comparing the three of them, that’s putting them on a higher pedestal than anyone else. He doesn’t buckle. He does not buckle under pressure. That’s a rarity.”

Mardle did not want to be pulled into the tired argument about legacies and trophy counts. He pushed back on that directly, while still pointing to traits he sees in the modern top two. “No. I don’t compare. Comparison is the thief of joy. Remember that,” he said. “I don’t like doing that, but I can compare their games. I’m not going to compare what they’re going to win, of course. It’s just not me.”

What he is prepared to do is talk about how the game looks now and why it feels different. “But what Luke is doing and Luke Humphries to a point, the scoring phase of their games is right there with them,” he said.

Mardle described the contrast in styles he has watched across eras, not as a judgement, but as a way to explain why Littler and Humphries can make matches feel like they are speeding up. “Taylor’s was different. It was slower. It was more methodical,” he said. “Michael would literally go 180, 180, 105, 36 out. Littler and Humphries are doing similar to that, in that speed. So it just looks different, but just as effective.”

For Mardle, that pace matters because it increases the pressure on the player who is chasing. “It was a case of [unclear] was always chasing,” he said of a recent match he referenced. “And that’s not a massively long format.”

Even in an interview dominated by the two Lukes, Mardle was keen to point out what gets lost when one name absorbs the entire spotlight.

“Yes. Yes, we have,” he said when asked if the sport has forgotten Humphries’ level. Then he widened it. “And I tell you what also we’ve forgotten about. Michael van Gerwen as well.”

Mardle’s point was not that van Gerwen is back to his peak, or that he should be installed as the main threat. It was that the rush to declare him finished does not line up with the reality of how hard he remains to beat. “He’s still very, very difficult to beat,” Mardle said. “And whoever beats him does not play poorly. Everyone thinks Michael van Gerwen’s gone. What on earth? How mad are you? I just don’t get it.”

He then listed other names he believes get overlooked because their style is not fashionable. “Danny Noppert will always go under the radar because he’s not a sexy dart player. James Wade has never been a sexy dart player. Gerwyn Price is not as brash as he used to be, so people are forgetting him a bit.”

“These are winners,” he added. “These are winners. They will continue to win.”

Mardle also stressed that Littler’s impact on the sport should not erase everyone else’s role in keeping the game moving. “And look, whilst he has grown the game, it’s the others and everyone else that grows the game,” he said. “Luke Littler is just taking all the plaudits at the moment because he is winning more than most. He just is.”

When the conversation turned back to the draw and the outright call, Mardle did not dress it up. “In my opinion, there was a short list anyway of about six or seven players,” he said. “It has to be a Luke-and-Luke final.”

He acknowledged the reaction that always follows that kind of pick, and he did not care. “Whilst people think it’s boring, ‘Oh, you’ve picked the favourites’, I think they’re the best players,” he said. “Under pressure, they are the most likely to.”

Even when they are not at their best, he still backed them to beat the kind of level that can look threatening in other quarters. “And if they both play poorly, they can still beat a Michael van Gerwen that’s playing decent,” Mardle said. “They can still beat a Gerwyn Price that’s playing decent.”

The final line was the simplest summary of the gap he believes exists right now. “If they play well, I don’t think anyone can see them getting beat until they play each other in a final.”

Littler’s 3-0 win over Labanauskas has already put him into the next stage with minimal fuss. If Mardle is right, the real test of the title defence may not be the format, the prize money or even the weight of history.

It may simply be whether anyone can force a different ending before a Luke meets a Luke on the sport’s biggest stage.