I'M MAN TO BEAT

Littler accepts he is the main target

- MIKE WALTERS

LUKE LITTLER admits he is fair game for rivals who sledge him now he's turned 18.

But the boy who became a world champion has already grown wary of opponents who raise their game to beat him and then flop in the next round.

Luke the Nuke begins the defence of his BetMGM Premier League title tonight with a repeat of his World Championship final against Michael van Gerwen - and a flea in his ear from MVG for turning up late at the players' photoshoot on the Titanic slipway.

If Littler was expecting the target on his back to become a burden of adulthood, he didn't have to wait long for the first shots to be fired.