Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on November 16, 2025
1 min readLast updated: January 21, 2026
Add as preferred source on GoogleLuke Littler, at 18, is poised to become the youngest world number one in darts after his semi-final win in the Grand Slam of Darts.
(Reuters) -Darts world champion Luke Littler is set to become the sport's youngest world number one at 18 after Sunday's 16-9 win over Danny Noppert in the semi-finals of the Grand Slam of Darts in Wolverhampton.
England's Littler, who became the sport's youngest world champion in January when he was 17, will top the global rankings of the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) regardless of the result of the final against Luke Humphries, the current world number one, set for later on Sunday.
"It has not even been two years that I've been on the tour and I'm already world number one. That is job done... but there is a bigger match tonight," Littler told Sky Sports.
Michael van Gerwen, who lost to Littler in this year's World Championship final, was previously the youngest world number one in the sport, having topped the PDC world rankings at age 24 in 2014.
(Reporting by Chiranjit Ojha in BengaluruEditing by Toby Davis)
A world champion in darts is a player who has won the highest level of competition in the sport, typically recognized by the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) or similar governing bodies.
The Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) is the main professional darts organization, responsible for organizing major tournaments and maintaining the official rankings of players.
A semi-final is a match or round in a tournament that determines which competitors will advance to the final. It typically features the last four participants.
A global ranking in sports is a system that ranks players or teams based on their performance in competitions worldwide, often used to determine seeding in tournaments.
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