Ryan Meikle insists he has no plans to try and unsettle Luke Littler by adopting a controversial tactic in their PDC World Darts Championship clash on Saturday.
The 28-year-old overcame a tricky opening match of the tournament against Alexandra Palace favourite Fallon Sherrock.
The female darts star shot to stardom in 2019 when she became the first woman to win a match at the PDC World Darts Championship.
And she took the match against Meikle to a deciding set before the world No 62 held his nerve to progress to the next round.
Ryan Meikle will be hoping to upset the odds against Luke Littler
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Meikle now faces arguably one of the toughest matches in darts when he takes on teenage sensation Littler.
The 17-year-old will be returning to Alexandra Palace one year after his breakthrough moment.
He’s won 10 senior titles since making his professional debut and is regarded as the favourite to win the world title this year.
Meikle will have to bring his A-game to pull off an upset and he was asked whether he would be tempted to change up his style of play to try and disrupt his opponent.
Littler has struggled previously against opponents who play slow, such as Andrew Gilding at the European Championship in October.
But Meikle won’t be following in the footsteps of Gilding as he hopes his own style can be enough to topple Littler.
“I try to get myself into a good rhythm,” Meikle said.
“I don’t want to be known as a slow player. I know people go on about it a lot but I’m not looking to slow him down or do any sort of tactics.
Ryan Meikle overcame Fallon Sherrock in the first round
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“I just want to play well myself and I didn’t think he had any weaknesses. I just think he’s unbelievable.
“I’m just looking forward to playing him and I feel quite lucky to play him, especially here where it all sort of happened for him.”
He added: “I do think this year with Luke, after what he did last year, there will be a hell of a lot of pressure on him for Saturday.
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“I think there’s a lot of pressure on him. A lot of the seeds have gone from the last couple of days.
“You just never know what’s going to happen.”
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