Luke Littler warns opponent his pre-match comments are ‘not really good for his game’
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Ryan Joyce admitted that Luke Littler will not have to be at his absolute best to beat him and the Nuke is not sure his opponent is doing himself any favours with that kind of talk. Littler and Joyce meet in the last 16 of the World Darts Championship on Monday night, with the winner getting a crack at either Ricardo Pietreczko or Nathan Aspinall in the quarter-finals.
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Littler has not consistently hit his blistering top form, but has still picked up reasonably comfortable wins over Ryan Meikle and Ian White. Joyce has needed three wins to reach this stage, beating Darius Labanauskas , Danny Noppert and Ryan Searle, mostly thanks to his red hot doubling rather than his scoring prowess.
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The man known as Relentless is happy to admit that if Littler clicks into top gear then the teenager will have too much for him in the scoring department, but says he will be ready to pounce if the Nuke’s standards slip. ‘I haven’t got the scoring power consistency to compete with Luke Littler, but I can hit the doubles,’ said Joyce after beating Searle 4-3.
‘I’ll go into the game thinking I can win the match, but I’ll also feel like I’m the underdog to win. We’ve seen in sport so many times that the favourite doesn’t always win, otherwise it would be boring to watch wouldn’t it. ‘If Luke Littler plays at his absolute top level, he can beat anybody won’t he and he will brush me aside comfortably.
