Luke Littler begins Grand Slam of Darts campaign with win over Beau Greaves

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World champion Luke Littler turned on the power as he swept past Beau Greaves 5-2 in his opening match at the Grand Slam of Darts in Wolverhampton.

After looking invincible in the first half of 2026 as he won the first five majors, Littler had come up short at the World Series of Darts Finals, then slipped to a first-round exit at the Grand Prix before another last-eight defeat in the European Championship.

Littler, though, produced a vintage clinical display at WV Active Aldersley as he broke Greaves in the second leg of the Group A match before soon opening up a 3-0 lead in rapid time.

Greaves had memorably beaten Littler in semi-finals of last year’s World Youth Championship, but despite holding to cut the deficit back to 4-2, another defeat looked inevitable.

Littler swiftly wrapped things up by taking out tops with his first match dart, finishing with an average of just under 110 and having landed seven 180s.

“I am happy with the win,” Littler said on Sky Sports. “I said in my pre-match interview I needed to get off to a strong start because Beau started to find it at the end there.

“I just had to finish how I started. I was very good on the scoring, (but) 29 per cent on the doubles, I need to improve on that.

“Beau was fantastic. I am happy with myself and still 100 per cent here in Wolverhampton.”

Littler added: “I think it is what I need. Obviously the past three or four majors haven’t gone well, but I have been practising and I am glad I have shown it.”

With the tournament expanded to 48 players in 16 groups of three, the pressure on securing a win from the opening match has been cranked up.

World number two Luke Humphries eventually closed out a 5-3 win over Paolo Nebrida to get up and running in Group I.

Three-time world champion Michael van Gerwen survived two match darts as he dug in to beat debutant Henry Coates in a last-leg decider of their Group L match, while Welshman Gerwyn Price saw off Joe Hunt 5-3 in his Group E opener.

European champion Ross Smith, though, slipped to an unexpected 5-3 defeat to Rusty-Jake Rodriguez in Group O, while in Group K, James Wade averaged 104 as he coasted past Cam Crabtree 5-1.

In the later matches, third seed Gian van Veen averaged 110.51 in a dominant 5-2 win over Carl Sneyd in Group M before Chris Dobey finished the night by beating Germany’s Jan Schmidt 5-2 in Group N.

The opening game of Saturday’s afternoon session had brought a shock as debutant Tom Sykes beat number 15 seed Luke Woodhouse 5-3 in Group J.

In Group C, world number eight Josh Rock lost 5-2 against Tommy Morris, who was making his debut in a televised event, and Jonny Clayton is up against it in Group G after a 5-4 defeat to Sweden’s Anton Ostlund.

Stephen Bunting edged past Raymond Smith, the ANZ Premier League champion, in a last-leg decider of their Group D game, while Dutchman Jermaine Wattimena saw off Lisa Ashton 5-2 in Group B.

Ryan Searle fought back to battle through 5-4 against Charlie Manby in Group F. In Group H, Wessel Nijman swept past Adam Sevada 5-1 and Nathan Aspinall beat Maik Kuivenhoven, also 5-1, in Group P with a match average of 111.