--- title: "Luke Littler beats Beau Greaves 5-2 to open his Grand Slam of Darts title defense in Wolverhampton" url: https://badiyaa.com/luke-littler-beau-greaves-grand-slam-darts/ published: 2026-11-15T05:52:00+00:00 modified: 2026-11-15T05:52:00+00:00 section: Sports publisher: Badiyaa --- # Luke Littler beats Beau Greaves 5-2 to open his Grand Slam of Darts title defense in Wolverhampton Luke Littler beat Beau Greaves 5-2 with a 109.97 average to start his bid for a third straight Grand Slam of Darts title in Wolverhampton. Luke Littler opened his Grand Slam of Darts title defense with a 5-2 win over Beau Greaves in Wolverhampton on Saturday night, averaging 109.97 against an opponent who posted 103.82 and still lost. That Greaves average is the headline inside the headline. Six players topped 103 on the opening night of the 2026 event, and she was the only one of them to finish on the wrong side of the result. It was also her third match average of 100 or more at the Grand Slam. ## Fast start, slow finish The 19-year-old world champion broke Greaves’s throw in the second leg and was 3-0 up before she found her range, according to a match report. Greaves held to trail 4-2 and kept the pressure on late, but Littler closed it out on double 20. He was not fully satisfied. Speaking after the match, Littler said: “I just had to finish how I started. I was very good at the scoring, but 29 per cent on the doubles needs to improve.” He also had words for the woman across the stage. “Beau was fantastic, but I’m happy with myself and I’m still 100 per cent here in Wolverhampton,” he said. Put those two numbers side by side and the warning to the field is plain. A 29 percent checkout rate means Littler missed roughly seven of every ten darts he threw at a double, and he still won by three legs with an average near 110. ## Why Greaves matters For American and Canadian readers new to the sport, the Grand Slam is one of the few major darts events where qualifiers from outside the main tour, including the women’s game, share a stage with the elite. Greaves earned two routes in: she was runner-up at the 2025 World Youth Championship and won the 2026 Women’s World Matchplay. She also won a Players Championship event on the main tour this year, beating a field of men. The pair had history. Greaves beat Littler the last time they met, in the semifinals of last year’s World Youth Championship, according to a match report. ## A bigger Grand Slam, a tougher format This year’s tournament has grown from 32 players to 48, split into 16 groups of three. Only the group winner goes through to the last 16, so one loss can be fatal. The prize fund has jumped from £650,000 to £1 million, with £200,000 (about $250,000) for the winner. Littler is chasing a third straight title after beating Martin Lukeman 16-3 in the 2024 final and Luke Humphries 16-11 last year. Only two players have won the Grand Slam three years in a row: - Phil Taylor, 2007 to 2009 - Michael van Gerwen, 2015 to 2017 Gerwyn Price also has three titles, but his run was broken by José de Sousa’s win in 2020. Littler’s week is coming off a rare televised defeat. Days earlier, [Fallon Sherrock beat Luke Littler on Netflix’s live darts show](https://badiyaa.com/fallon-sherrock-beat-luke-littler-netflix/) to end a 14-leg streak. More of our darts and other results are on the [Badiyaa Sports page](https://badiyaa.com/category/sports/). Group A is now simple math. Greaves plays Niels Zonneveld on Sunday, November 15, and needs to win. Littler faces Zonneveld on Monday, November 16, and a victory sends him into the last 16. ## Further reading - [Wikipedia: 2026 Grand Slam of Darts](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_Grand_Slam_of_Darts) - [Wikipedia: Grand Slam of Darts](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Slam_of_Darts) *Image: Sandro Halank, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons* *This article was produced with AI assistance and reviewed by our Editorial Desk. [How we work](https://badiyaa.com/editorial-policy/).*