Gian van Veen believes it ‘helps’ to be in the shadow of Luke Littler and Michael van Gerwen at this stage of his career.The Dutch darts star is amongst the favourites to win the PDC World Darts Championship.GettyVan Veen is ‘happy’ to be in the shadow of Littler and Van Gerwen despite his success[/caption]Van Veen is into the last 16 at Alexandra Palace after beating Madars Razma 4-1 on Sunday night.However, the 23-year-old admits he is happy to be in the shadow of the current and former world champion.By beating Razma, Van Veen has climbed up to sixth in the provisional world rankings, making him the new Dutch No.2.The European champion leapfrogged Danny Noppert, but remains behind world number three Van Gerwen. Speaking after reaching the fourth round, Van Veen told reporters: “It’s difficult. In the Netherlands, you always have Michael van Gerwen. Everyone is looking for the number two behind him.”He continued: “I’ve shown in this tournament that I can be number two in the Netherlands. I’ve overtaken Danny Noppert in the rankings.“There’s a lot of pressure, but Michael has dealt with it for many years. For me, it’s new, but I’m dealing with it well so far.”Despite being back-to-back world youth champion, Van Veen believes he remains in the shadow of world number one Littler.The Giant explained: “As a Dutchman, I’m in Michael’s shadow. As a young player, I’m also in Luke Littler’s shadow. That helps.”Asked if he wants to step out of their shadows one day, he said: “Of course. As a human being, you want to be world number one, Dutch number one, world champion.GettyVan Gerwen remains the Dutch No.1 ahead of Van Veen after he leapfrogged Noppert[/caption]“But for now, I’m happy being in the shadows. And if I win this tournament, then I’ll step out of it and I won’t complain.”Prior to this year’s PDC World Darts Championship, Van Veen had yet to win a match at Ally Pally in two previous appearances.However, another victory in the last 16 could see him climb as high as fourth in the world.Van Veen was not completely convinced by his performance against Razma in the third round, though.Speaking exclusively to talkSPORT, he admitted: “I was 3-0 up. But I wasn’t really happy with my game. Of course, I got 3-0 up averaging about 99 to 101.“But my darts weren’t sitting in the board the way I wanted (them) to. They were standing a bit more upright than I was in the practice room. I didn’t know what happened.GettyDefending world champion Littler could lie in wait for Van Veen in the final at Ally Pally[/caption]“It’s the first time I didn’t hit as many as a 180 as I wanted to because I couldn’t use my darts the way they landed on the board.“It was a bit difficult, but I was probably a bit too focused on that in the fourth set. That’s why I dropped off a little bit, but in the last set I got the job done.”He continued: “In the practice room it did. As soon as I got on stage, instead of my darts landing flat, they were a bit upright so I couldn’t use them.“There’s probably something wrong with my throw today, so I’m going to look back at my game tonight or maybe tomorrow morning.“I’ve got the day off tomorrow (Monday), so I’m going to look at it and see what I did wrong compared to the other two games.“I’m going to correct that for the last 16 games and I’ll be sure I’ll be ready.”GettyBack-to-back world youth champion Van Veen is into the last 16 for the first time[/caption]Can Van Veen win world title?Despite being tipped for the title behind Littler and Luke Humphries, Van Veen remains relaxed about lifting the Sid Waddell Trophy.Assessing his chances of becoming world champion, he said: “To win it is going to be very difficult. I’m taking it game by game, into the last 16 now, for the first time in my career. World number six now.“I don’t want to say it, but looking good for the Premier League. Who knows? But we’ll see. I’m just going to take it game by game.“Charlie Manby or Ricky Evans up next. Whoever it is, I’m going to be favourite for that game.“Hopefully get into the quarter-final and then world number six or five after the Worlds. But it’s not going to stop here. I’m playing good, feeling really good.”Van Veen faces either Ricky Evans or Charlie Manby in the fourth round on Tuesday.The winner of that match will take on either Luke Humphries, Nathan Aspinall or Kevin Doets in the quarter-finals on New Year’s Day.Keep up to date with the latest news and interviews from the World Darts Championship on the talkSPORT Darts YouTube channel