Luke Humphries has said that he is rooting for Luke Littler to complete the clean sweep, but only if it is when he is out of a tournament himself, as 'The Nuke' looks to hold all majors in a calendar year with further boxes to be ticked. Humphries, speaking after he edged past Jermaine Wattimena 6-4 at the World Series of Darts Finals, admitted that while it would be the most incredible thing if Littler managed the feat, he does not want it to come at his own expense.
"I don't want to be the one to stop him from doing it; I don't want to achieve it because I want to win a major. If he does the clean sweep, then that means I don't win anything, and obviously, for me, as a personal point of view, I don't want that to happen," Humphries told Online Darts. "So my personal opinion of it is if I lose early, then I want him to win because if I don't win a major, I'd love to see him do it because it'd be the most incredible thing I've ever seen in my lifetime anyway. So yeah, obviously I don't want him to do it because I want to win a major, but if I'm, you know, losing in semifinals or quarterfinals or first rounds, whatever happens in the next load of majors, then I'll be rooting for him to do it because it'd be quite some achievement to do it. But yeah, I'm hoping to stop him because I want to win one; that's the most important thing for me."
Reflecting on his 6-4 victory over Wattimena, Humphries described it as a business-like display after he lost early at the World Matchplay. "Obviously you don't want that drama because I feel like, you know, Jermaine was missing, and he was giving me chances, and I could have been sat in my hotel room for 10 minutes being like, 'What the hell has just happened? How have I missed like 11, 12 darts to win the game?'" he said. "So they can be frustrating, but obviously when you win you kind of don't really care about it too much, but it was a decent performance overall apart from that, and I don't really usually get them. I wasn't nervous; I just felt like the apprehension of trying to win too much, and I don't usually get that, but I did. I think it sometimes happens. When you've lost a first round in a major, I can't remember the last time I won or lost two first-round games in a major, so I just felt like that pressure's on your shoulders that you just don't want it to happen, and I was desperately trying to try and get that double in, but now I've got the double in the end. I feel like the next game will just be a lot more relaxed, and it'll be a lot more free-flowing."
Humphries also discussed the format change, noting that the step up in distance favours the bigger names. "First to six is always a tough, tough game. You know, anybody can be anybody in this room, the draw that you see; anybody can be anybody. There is no, like, obviously you have your favourites, but anybody can be anybody first of six. When it's first of ten, the stronger player tends to win. You know, if you've lost a game first of ten, likely initially you deserve to lose, and if you've played really well, then you probably deserve to win. So yeah, when you're playing that sort of level of format, then the better player always wins, and it suits the likes of me much better, so obviously it being first of ten is going to help me out a little bit more, and I relax a lot more, and yeah, I think that would just suit me a little bit more than first of six."
Desperate to win a major again, Humphries believes one title could spark a run. "I feel like I've not been unlucky, but I feel like I've been so close to so many majors over the last 12 months. It's like I feel like I just need one to whet the appetite a little bit because I think I've lost five now, five major titles since I won my last, and obviously a lot of them have been to Luke, so, you know, he's not no disgrace, but I feel like I've been close a lot, and it'd just be nice to get out of the line, whether it's this week or in the Grand Prix or the Grand Slam, just one before the World's because I feel like I deserve one a little bit in a way. I mean, you put in what you deserve, but I feel like I just deserve one, so it's up to me to try and, like, really work hard this weekend to make it right and to win one because if I get on that little roll again, then I can really start pushing and, you know, putting a lot more pressure on other players."
Returning to Amsterdam is also something Humphries very much enjoys, and he said that it is only perhaps beaten by New York. "I mean, it is because it's such a fun country; it's a bit different, and, you know, it's a different city than the usual ones we go to. Some of them can be a little bit more, like a little bit more relaxed, and you don't really have much to do in New York. There are about a million and one things to do. I think I've been there three years or four years on a trot, and I still haven't done everything I wanted to do there. So yeah, it's a great city, and for us it's the biggest venue that we'll play in the world, not just the World Series. I mean, Madison Square Garden, it doesn't really get bigger than that at this moment in time. So yeah, it's obviously the favourite one for me, and I think it's the favourite one for most of the players. Obviously back-to-back, it's a very special feeling, and I'll be looking to next year to go do the hat-trick. I'd say Amsterdam is probably the second because, obviously, I've been to a lot of places, but this is an amazing city, so, you know, this is still a great place to be, and, you know, I'm really, really happy that the World Series Final is always here. Of course you're right; this is one of the three that I've never won: the European Championships, the UK Open and this one. There's another one next year, as we all know, so there's going to be four now. So yeah, I've still got a lot of majors to tick off and to win, and, you know, this is a really, really tough one because you're playing a lot of good players all the time. So yeah, this is one I definitely want to tick off, and if I could do it this year, amazing because obviously I could do the European Championships this year and go to the UK Open and then the one next year and tick them all off. But yeah, my lifelong dream would be to tick off every major that's on the calendar."
