Gerwyn Price is out to bounce back from July's World Matchplay disappointment as he begins the defence of his BoyleSports World Grand Prix title in Leicester on Sunday.
Price will take to the Morningside Arena stage to face Michael Smith in a tough first round tie in the double-start event, looking to put his World Matchplay loss to Dimitri Van den Bergh behind him.
The Welshman suffered a quarter-final loss at the hands of Van den Bergh in Blackpool, the most recent televised ranking event.
Reflecting honestly on the defeat, Price admitted: “The World Matchplay didn’t go my way, I just let things get under my skin.
"I let myself down a bit, I wasn’t expecting the crowd to be with me, I’m used to the boos.
"I just let myself down mentally. I’ll learn from those mistakes."
Despite suffering disappointment at the World Matchplay and World Cup, the world number one picked up both the year's European Tour event titles in Hungary and Gibraltar.
A confident Price said: “I know if I play my 'A game' 99.9 per cent of the time I’m going to win.
“Obviously being the World Champ and world number one people want to beat you that extra 10 or 20 per cent. They just try a little bit too hard sometimes.
“It’s hard to get to World No.1 and it’s even harder to stay there. If Peter does well and wins a couple of majors and overtakes me before the Worlds then fair play to him.
“But it’s going to be tough for him. I think I only need to win one major and I don’t think it will be possible for him.
“It’s all good that they are talking about chasing me. A couple of years ago I was chasing everybody else. I’m not looking over my shoulder. It’s up to them to catch me.”
Price begins his title defence on Sunday evening against world number nine Smith, the highest ranked unseeded player in the tournament.
“Every tournament now I go into win," the World Champion added. "Being the defending champ it would be nice to have a good run and get into the final.
“I seem to do well when I’m defending tournaments. The Grand Slam I defended and a couple of Europeans. Hopefully I’ll do the same at the Grand Prix and the big one at the end of the year as well.
“It doesn’t matter who you play, every game is going to be tough. I just concentrate on my own game.
“I’m defending some big money now. Hopefully I can take that pressure off and win this week."
Tickets for the 2021 BoyleSports World Grand Prix are available, although some sessions have now sold out.
The tournament will be broadcast live on Sky Sports, as well as through the PDC's international broadcast partners including DAZN and RTL7, and through PDCTV for Rest of the World Subscribers.
2021 BoyleSports World Grand Prix
Schedule of Play
Sunday October 3 (1800 BST)
8x First Round
Martijn Kleermaker v Mervyn King
Dirk van Duijvenbode v Luke Humphries
Stephen Bunting v Daryl Gurney
Joe Cullen v Ross Smith
Dave Chisnall v Mensur Suljovic
James Wade v Damon Heta
Gerwyn Price v Michael Smith
Dimitri Van den Bergh v Ryan Searle
Monday October 4 (1800 BST)
8x First Round
Darius Labanauskas v Brendan Dolan
Callan Rydz v Jonny Clayton
Vincent van der Voort v Gabriel Clemens
Nathan Aspinall v Krzysztof Ratajski
Gary Anderson v Ian White
Peter Wright v Rob Cross
Michael van Gerwen v Danny Noppert
Jose de Sousa v Glen Durrant
Tuesday October 5 (1900 BST)
4x Second Round
Wednesday October 6 (1900 BST)
4x Second Round
Thursday October 7 (1900 BST)
Quarter-Finals
Friday October 8 (1900 BST)
Semi-Finals
Saturday October 9 (2030 BST)
Final