Luke Littler's comments about his win over Mike De Decker were branded "inappropriate" by a former darts player.
The Belgian went into the World Grand Prix as the defending champion but was beaten 3-0 by Littler in the second round before 'The Nuke' went all the way to win the competition for the first time and claim £120,000 in prize money after his seventh major TV title.
Littler beat Humphries in another final and there was again mutual respect between the two leading darts players in the world.
But the 18-year-old caused a stir earlier on in Leicester after his win over De Decker “a bit boring” because of his plain-sailing win.
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And that remark irked 4 PDC Pro Tour title champion and three-time World Championship quarter finalist Vincent van der Voort, who believed Littler displayed a lack of respect.
"That’s just a tap on the chin you give someone like De Decker,” Van der Voort said on the Darts Draait Door podcast.
“You don’t have to say that. It’s inappropriate and not very respectful.”
He added: "At the Grand Slam, Littler actually needed the crowd to beat De Decker.
"And then to make comments like that about someone who won a tournament just last year – putting him down like that, I don’t like it. But at the same time, it adds a bit of spice. Hopefully De Decker will take that personally and go into their next match with fire in his belly.”
After his World Grand Prix, Littler surprised many by announcing he would compete in the World Youth Championship in Wigan for which he was eligible to enter, just a day later.
The 2025 world and Premier League champion was the overwhelming favourite but was defeated 6-5 in a pulsating semi-final against 21-year-old Beau Greaves, who will take part in the final in Minehead in November and is set to play in the World Darts Championship.
Afterwards, Littler took to Instagram to call "fair play" on Greaves' impressive win and called the women's No.1 "some talent".
And after an online troll aimed a vile comment at Greaves and said, "women should not compete with men", Littler jumped in the Instagram comments section to reply, "Are you high?".
Littler suffered another surprising loss when he was beaten by Ritchie Edhouse in Players Championship 31 before bouncing back by winning Players Championship 32 Dennie Olde Kalter.
In a post-match interview, he proceeded to fire back at those who criticised him for playing in the World Youth Championship in the first place.
"The likes of Gian van Veen, tour holder, Keane Barry, tour car holder - but I'm the one who gets it in the neck," Littler said in an interview with the PDC.
"I didn't win so obviously a lot of people were happy."
Topics: Luke Littler, Darts, World Darts Championship
Josh Lawless