Rob Cross has just said the quiet part out loud. Luke Littler is not unbeatable. Not over the short stuff. Not if someone actually turns up ready to match him.
That is the message from a former world champion sitting in Amsterdam this week, looking at the World Series of Darts Finals draw and refusing to treat The Nuke like a video game boss. Cross plays Ryan Searle on Thursday. Littler plays Danny Noppert on Friday. First to six legs. Best of 11. Exactly the kind of night Cross thinks gives the rest of the field a sniff.
He is not talking rubbish. He has shared a stage with Littler often enough to know the difference between a long grind and a sprint.
Where Cross Thinks the Door Opens
Cross told The Sun he does not expect Littler to complete a historic clean sweep of the television majors. The reason is format, not reputation.
“If we look at the World Matchplay, when he hit 16 legs, I didn’t think anyone was going to get near him,” Cross said. “The way he played, it was the best performance we have seen at the Matchplay. For him to play like that for the rest of the year is improbable, though possible.”
Then he got specific.
“People will get close to him. Set play or shorter formats are going to be when he is most vulnerable.”
That is the line that will travel around the practice boards tonight. World Series first rounds are best of 11. The World Grand Prix is double-in, double-out. Those are the nights where one sloppy visit or one missed set-up can flip a match before Littler’s scoring engine really starts to hum.
Cross went further. Over best of 31, he barely sees anyone stopping him. Over the shorter stuff, the picture changes.
“Do I think he’s unbeatable? No. But there’s a big threshold at the minute, and he seems to pull through, even if it’s a little bit tight. Going forward with the change of formats, with the six TV events, he’s beatable, 100%. But who’s going to step to the plate? It depends on what way the draw is going.”
The last sentence is the real challenge. Beatable is one thing. Beating him is another.
The Context Around Amsterdam
Littler arrives with six television majors already in the bag for 2026: World Championship, World Masters, UK Open, Premier League, World Cup with Luke Humphries, and the World Matchplay. Left on the list are this event, the World Grand Prix, the European Championship he has never won, the Grand Slam, and the Players Championship Finals.
Neither Phil Taylor nor Michael van Gerwen managed every TV title in a single calendar year after the Premier League began in 2005. That is the mountain. Cross is saying the foothills are where someone might trip him.
Littler won this tournament on debut in 2024. Last year in the same building he lost the final 11-7 to van Gerwen. The Dutch crowd will be loud again. Noppert is a home player who can punish early mistakes. First to six is no place to ease into a weekend.
Cross himself is world number 21 and a Target ambassador. He knows what it feels like to have the whole room against you and still find a way. He also knows what it feels like when Littler hits that extra gear and the match disappears.
Why the Opinion Carries Weight
This is not a pundit fishing for clicks. Cross has lost to Littler on the big stage and still forced him to work. At Alexandra Palace last winter he took a set, landed a 126, and had Littler scrambling before the teenager produced a ten-darter and closed it 4-2. Those nights leave a mark. When Voltage talks about thresholds and tight finishes, he is describing something he has seen up close.
He also refuses to pretend the rest of the tour can wait for Littler to drop his level.
“It’s just that everyone has to raise their game to him, because I don’t think he will lower his for anyone else.”
That is the honest part. Littler does not play down to the field. The field has to play up. In a best-of-11 that demand arrives immediately. There is no second session to find rhythm. Miss your first two doubles and you can be 4-1 down before the walk-on music has faded from your head.
What It Could Mean From Here
If someone does take Littler out this week, the clean-sweep talk cools overnight. The World Grand Prix then becomes even more interesting because of the unique start-and-finish on doubles. Cross flagged that format specifically. A player who lives on the outer ring suddenly has a different puzzle to solve.
If Littler sails through Amsterdam, the same conversation simply moves to Leicester. The point Cross is making does not vanish with one win. It sits there for the rest of the year: long-format Littler looks like a different animal from short-format Littler.
There is a balance here that fans should keep. Calling him vulnerable is not the same as calling him ordinary. He has already done things Taylor and van Gerwen never did in a single year. Cross is not denying that. He is saying the remaining events are not all the same shape, and shape matters.
Noppert, van Gerwen, Humphries, Price, Rock, whoever survives Thursday and Friday, they now have a public scouting report from a man who has stood across from the target. Raise your game. Attack the short format. Do not wait for him to blink.
Littler will still be favourite. He should be. But the idea that the rest of the week is a procession just took a dent from someone who has no reason to talk the young champion up.
The oche in Amsterdam will tell us soon enough whether Cross has spotted a real crack or just the only one anyone can still see. Either way, the conversation is better for it. Darts needs players willing to say the favourite can be got, and then go and try.
Do you buy it? Is the best of 11 the place someone finally nicks a set off The Nuke this year, or does he just walk through another short match the way he walks through everything else? Have your say.
Darts without Luke Littler is not as interesting as with….. Littler made me and my daughter start playing darts….. with averages around 40 max 🙂🙃