Lewis' Title Target

ADRIAN LEWIS has set his sights on winning at least eight Ladbrokes World Darts Championship titles after retaining the trophy on Monday night.

Lewis became the sport's latest multiple World Champion with a 7-3 defeat of Stoke rival Andy Hamilton at Alexandra Palace on Monday, winning the title for a second successive year.

The 26-year-old follows Phil Taylor and John Part in winning the PDC World Championship more than once, and aims to win the trophy at least six more times before he hangs up his darts.

"I've set myself a target of eight to ten World Championship titles and I'm on my way towards that now," said Lewis.

"If I win between eight and ten I can retire a happy man - but I'm only 26 so I've got plenty of time left in my career.

"There's no reason I can't do that because to retain the trophy shows that I'm the best player in the world at the minute."

Lewis had avoided a scare in his first round win over Nigel Heydon at Alexandra Palace, and also produced arguably the sport's greatest comeback when he hit back from 5-1 down to win his semi-final with James Wade 6-5.

"I rode my luck a bit in the first round against Nigel but really dug in to get through that," added Lewis.

"When he was two sets up and then I got stung by a wasp, I thought it wasn't going to be my year, so it was a relief just to win that.

"It was tough against Robert Thornton and Wayne Jones too, then Terry Jenkins gave me a scare again in the quarter-finals and to come from 5-1 down against James was a great achievemet.

"It took a lot out of me and I was a little bit drained in the final, but managed to push myself and get the win. It's a great feeling."

Having secured second place in the PDC Order of Merit ahead of Wade by retaining the title, Lewis will now partner Phil Taylor in next month's PDC World Cup of Darts in Hamburg.

"To partner Phil in the World Cup will be a massive honour for me," said Lewis. "I'm so used to playing against him that it might take a little bit of getting used to when I'm playing with him.

"He's given me plenty of batterings in the past so it will be nice not to be on the receiving end! Hopefully we can win that title too."