Luke Littler confirmed he will return home for Christmas in the middle of the PDC World Championship. The teenage darts sensation got his tournament underway by beating Ryan Meikle 3-1 in the second round on Saturday night.

The Runcorn-born 7/4 favourite to win the Sid Waddell trophy was immediately under pressure from his opponent in their Alexandra Palace match-up. After two sets the match was tied, though the Nuke would take the next two to seal victory.

In his following TV interview he admitted his frustration, saying: "I started off dead slow," then in the middle of talking welled up with tears of joy at clearing the first hurdle. He sank into the arms of mum, Lisa, and dad, Anthony as the crowd chanted: "There is only one Luke Littler."

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Taking to X later on, the 17-year-old wrote to his followers: "Fought until the end and just good to be through to the next round. looking forward to heading home now for Christmas then back again for more. Cheers for all the support."

Now that he has overcome the challenge of Meikle, world-ranked No.4 Littler goes through to the third round of the tournament where he will face world No.29 Ritchie Edhouse or world No.57 Ian White after Christmas.

Speaking to written media shortly after, Littler managed to compose himself and confessed: "That was probably the toughest game I've ever played, but you've got to get over the line. I don't know where I pulled that last set from, but I just had to fight until the end.

"When I got on that stage I felt really nervous, but I managed to find my game from somewhere. I know I am the favourite, but you have to focus on winning your first game, and that's what I did tonight. Like I said, it's the worst game I've played. I've never felt anything like that tonight."

Talking to Sky Sports, he added: "It's probably the first and the biggest time it [pressure] has hit me. The Premier League, first night against Luke Humphries, I was nervous then, but throughout the year - all the European tours, all the majors I've played - I've been fine.