Gerwyn Price Says He Can Beat Littler. This Season's Results Suggest Otherwise

Gerwyn Price says he can stop Luke Littler winning back-to-back World Matchplay titles. His own results against 'The Nuke' this year suggest he might not be the man to ask. The Welshman booked his first Blackpool semi-final since 2022 with a 16-12 win over Ross Smith at the Winter Gardens, firing a 102.78 average and closing out victory with a four-leg burst after the pair had been locked at 12-12. It sets up a last-four meeting with world No 3 Gian van Veen, with the winner facing either Littler or Dirk van Duijvenbode in Sunday's best-of-35 final. Price's problem is that the case against his own optimism is sitting right there in the record books.

The record Price has to argue against

Littler beat Price in every Premier League fixture between them this season, and did so again in a final-set decider at the World Masters semi-finals. Since his 2024 World Championship final defeat, Littler has stayed unbeaten in PDC major matches over 20 legs. He arrived at this semi-final stage having posted a 109.57 average in his quarter-final win over Josh Rock, and remains overwhelming favourite to become the first player since Michael van Gerwen to defend a World Matchplay crown. Those are the numbers Price was standing in front of when he made his case for stopping the defending champion.

Speaking to reporters after his quarter-final, Price argued that plenty of players can reach Littler's level on their day, but questioned whether anyone could sustain it the way Littler currently does, calling him "ruthless at the minute" and noting how easy his 109 and 110 averages have looked. It's a curious kind of title warning: Price isn't disputing that Littler is playing better darts than almost anyone else in the field. He's suggesting that some opponents are making Littler's job simpler than it needs to be, describing it as a case of players letting the champion settle into his own rhythm rather than forcing him to adapt to theirs.

That is a specific, arguable claim about tactics and temperament, not a claim about Price's own scoreline against Littler this year - which remains winless in the matches cited. The distinction matters. Price isn't promising he beats Littler; he's promising that somebody with the right approach could. Whether he believes that somebody is himself is a separate question, and Saturday's draw means he has to get past Van Veen before it becomes relevant at all.

How Price actually got here

Price's quarter-final against Smith wasn't the routine keep-it-together job his 16-12 scoreline suggests. He built a commanding 12-8 lead and threatened to pull further clear, only to find himself level at 12-12 before finishing strongly to reach the last four. It's the kind of match a player can win comfortably and still leave frustrated by.

Price later admitted he was happy with most of his performance but felt he had let a handful of legs slip that could have made the finish far more comfortable than it turned out to be. He reckoned he should have closed the match out well before 16-12, describing himself as pleased with the win but frustrated by the missed chances along the way.

That self-assessment cuts against the confidence of his Littler comments. A player who let a four-leg lead evaporate against Smith, then had to close with a four-leg burst of his own to get over the line, is not obviously the model of ruthlessness he says the world No 1 is exploiting elsewhere in the draw. Price's semi-final assignment against Van Veen will tell us more about which version of his game turns up when the stakes rise again.

Van Veen's route was rougher than the scoreline shows

If Price's win had a wobble in the middle, Van Veen's had one that lasted most of the match. He beat James Wade 16-13 to reach his first World Matchplay semi-final, but did so with just a 93 average that he described bluntly afterwards as "very poor".

Van Veen admitted his scoring let him down badly and credited a run of big finishes, including a 160 checkout that helped him open up a 9-6 lead and a crucial 118 checkout later on, with getting him through after he had also squandered a four-leg advantage of his own. He said he was relieved to get the job done and hopeful of a sharper performance next time out.

Two quarter-finalists reaching Saturday's semi-final having both surrendered four-leg leads is not, on its own, proof of anything beyond the tightness of the tournament. But it does complicate the picture Price paints of players making life easy for Littler elsewhere in the draw - his own side of the bracket has not exactly been a procession either.

What Saturday and Sunday actually decide

The 2026 Betfred World Matchplay continues at the Winter Gardens with both semi-finals played over the best-of-33 legs, with the winners meeting in Sunday's best-of-35 final. Price opens the last four against Van Veen, before Littler faces Van Duijvenbode, who has reached the Blackpool semi-finals for the first time. Whichever of Price or Van Veen wins gets the version of Littler that has beaten Price in every meeting this season and remains unbeaten in major matches over 20 legs since his last World Championship final defeat - assuming Littler gets past Van Duijvenbode first.

Coverage continues from 7:30pm on Sky Sports Action, with the semi-finals moving to Sky Sports Main Event around 9pm. Price has the platform he asked for: a semi-final against a top-three opponent, with the defending champion waiting on the other side of the draw. Whether his words hold up against his own results is the question Saturday is built to answer.

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Research: Our wider editorial research consults online reporting from BBC Sport, Sky Sports, The Guardian and other reputable sources. Story inspiration: Sky Sports' original report.