Never defeated before in Wolverhampton but facing a minor trophy drought for his ludicrous standards, Luke Littler is looking to three-peat the Grand Slam of Darts and reinstate his darting monopoly.

After Littler stormed to all five of the opening Premier events of 2026, some said the sport became boring. Comments such as ‘Littler’s going to win it, there’s no point’ or ‘he’ll easily get the clean sweep’ did the rounds online.

However, the World Champion has experienced a disparate autumn compared to the first half of the year.

A round one exit at the World Grand Prix sandwiched between quarter-final defeats at the World Series Finals and European Championship signifies the first time since his breakthrough Alexandra Palace run that Littler has gone three consecutive Premier events without winning a big title.

In hindsight, was it ever realistic that the 19-year-old phenom could maintain the extraordinary standards he set himself at the World Matchplay? A tournament average of 111.04 transcends superlatives.

Despite his recent slump in form and disappointing results, returning to glory is all that is on the back-to-back Grand Slam champion’s mind.

“Past results haven’t gone my way,” assessed Littler, following defeats to Jonny Clayton, Luke Woodhouse and Krzysztof Ratajski in his last three Premier events.

“I’ve been on social media and seen loads of memes saying ‘Luke is finished’, this and that.

“I’ve had long enough to look at them, get on the practice board and forget about it all.

“Hopefully, if I do lift the trophy, I can say I’ve not gone anywhere.”

Lifting trophies is, after all, more usual than unusual for the sport’s premier player. It is easy to disregard Littler’s unassailable ascent in darts since his emphatic arrival.

Since gaining a Tour Card at the dawn of 2024, the teenager has bagged the third-most Premier event titles in PDC history (14), as well as six televised nine-darters in that time.

He sits unquestionably atop the world rankings, with over £3.1 million to his name in prize money - more than his three closest competitors, Luke Humphries, Gian van Veen and Gerwyn Price, combined.

The World Champion has no better record than in Wolverhampton. He has won the Eric Bristow Trophy in both of his two attempts.

It gets scarier. Littler has never lost at the Grand Slam, even in the group stage. He has won all of his 14 matches, averaging less than 100 just twice - and never under a ton in the longer-format knockout stage.

His tournament average of 105.81 on debut two years ago was the highest tournament-winning average ever seen at the Grand Slam. Yet, while he loves the stats and records, his hunger this time around would only be satiated by the title. 

“It’s like a little Champions League knockout!” jibed Littler.

“It’s not easy going back-to-back in any competition and I’ve done it here.

“To remain unbeaten and come out of the group stage, that’s when the longer format comes into play and that’s when you see the best out of me.

“A longer format suits myself. Any short games are tough, you can’t afford to drop off.”

Although Littler is yet to be tripped up by the cut-throat short format in the group stage, this year may prove his trickiest test yet.

Pitted in this year’s ‘group of death’ with Dutch Darts Champion Niels Zonneveld and Women’s World Matchplay winner Beau Greaves in Group A, it is unlikely to be a procession for the world number one.

Zonneveld inflicted Littler’s only European Tour defeat of 2026, while Greaves averaged 105 in seeing off the Warrington star in last year’s World Youth Championship semi-final.

With only one player advancing to the last 16 from the newly-introduced groups of three, a first-ever defeat in Wolverhampton for the reigning champion would prove costly and leave the fate of his title defence outside of his control.

The group stage is the first banana skin, and a slippery one at that. But expect a vengeful Littler, looking to make more history.

Only two players have won three Grand Slam titles straight - no prizes for guessing that Phil Taylor and Michael van Gerwen are that duo. However, Littler would relish becoming the third, especially since this event marks two years since his first Premier ranking title.

It is not often a teenager struts into a sport and makes generational greatness look so casual and routine. His talent warrants appreciation - whether he storms to glory once again in Wolverhampton or not.

The 2026 Mr Vegas Grand Slam of Darts will be broadcast live on Sky Sports in the UK, through the PDC's worldwide broadcast partners including DAZN and Viaplay, and on PDCTV (excluding UK, Germany, Austria & Switzerland based subscribers).