Michael van Gerwen snubbed as Martin Lukeman makes huge Luke Littler prediction | Other | Sport

Martin Lukeman believes Luke Littler will eventually surpass Michael van Gerwen and Phil Taylor to become the greatest darts player in the history of the game. The Nuke continued his incredible rise by thrashing Lukeman to win his first TV ranking title at the Grand Slam of Darts.

Lukeman won the first two legs but was powerless to stop Littler from cruising to an emphatic 16-3 triumph. He won 15 straight legs on his way to victory, which saw him take home £150,000 and move up to fifth place in the Order of Merit.

Littler also became the third player in Grand Slam history to average over 100 in every match at the tournament. Taylor and Van Gerwen are the only other players to have achieved the feat, leaving Littler in good company.

Lukeman is convinced that Littler will one day be recognised as the greatest player the sport has ever seen if he manages to avoid the distractions of fame and stays focused on playing his best darts.

“He’s just different, man,” said Lukeman after his one-sided defeat to Littler. “If he gets his head on, forget about Michael van Gerwen’s records, he is going to beat Phil Taylor’s records.

“If he keeps his head right, stays away from drink and girls or whatever, that boy is going to go very, very far. He will break records ridiculously.”

It remains to be seen if Littler will eventually surpass the records set by Taylor over the course of his career. There is still a long way to go, but the 17-year-old appears to have the world at his feet after making such a fast start in the professional ranks.

Taylor recently offered to assist Littler in his quest to etch his name into the history books. His wisdom would come at a cost, though, with Taylor insisting he would move in with the teenager to maximise the impact of his training programme.

He told talkSPORT: “With young Luke, they have asked me if I would sit down with him and I said: ‘Of course I will’. But I would have to go and live with him for a few days, see what he is all about.

“If I spent time with him, I would see how he practices, see how he eats and exercises, how he does anything. If he’s playing on one of those PlayStations, I would give him a set time, maybe an hour a night or something, and then get ready for the next day.

“Make sure you aren’t staying up too late and waking up in the morning and you are shattered. I have seen that so many times, players who will have a drink afterwards, they get into the drinking and then they aren’t getting to bed until 1am or 2am.”