Luke Humphries produced a vastly improved 3-0 demolition of Jermaine Wattimena at the World Grand Prix on Thursday night, but the 2023 champion was unusually candid afterwards about his preparation, admitting he still isn't putting as much work into his game as he believes he should.
The 31-year-old hit 14 of his 19 attempts at a starting double and nine of 14 at the end of legs, producing a spectacular 10-darter along the way to book a quarter-final against Niels Zonneveld. Yet when asked whether he had responded to earlier struggles on the doubles by increasing his practice, Humphries said: “No, not really, and that’s what annoys me about myself because I feel like I wish I was like my younger self, when I used to really put the effort in. Things like that would happen and I’d really put the effort in and change it. It annoys me because I think, ‘Why don’t I do it?’ I sit here and I’ve said so many times in interviews, ‘I’m going to put the effort in, I’m going to practise,’ and I go home and I don’t do it. I feel like, what’s stopping you from doing it?”
Humphries even dismissed a lack of time as an excuse. “Sometimes you need that little epiphany in your brain to go, ‘Just do it. What’s stopping you?’” he continued. “You’ve got time on your hands. I know I’m busy and I play a lot of darts, but there is a lot of time off as well. If it’s about not spending time with my son, he goes to bed at seven. I could then go and have two hours on the board. There’s nothing stopping me. Sometimes I feel like I could just put a little bit more effort in, to be honest.” He added: “I’m still young. I’ve got so many opportunities to win many, many more tournaments, and if I want that I have to put more effort in.”
That admission followed a performance almost unrecognisable from his opening-round struggle against Dave Chisnall. Wattimena had two darts to win the opening set before Humphries punished him with an 88 checkout in two darts. From there the former world number one became increasingly difficult to contain, racing through the second set before opening the third with a 10-dart break and following it with a 14-darter. “As soon as I’ve hit it, I’m thinking, ‘Yeah, I know I’ve put a little bit of hurt into him,’” Humphries said of the 88. “I didn’t really look back too much. It was a close game, it was a good game. It was a lot closer than probably the scoreline would have suggested.”
Humphries' search for more on the practice board comes despite his belief that his underlying level in 2026 has actually surpassed previous seasons. The major trophies have been missing — he estimated it has now been around 15 months since his last — but his year has included narrow defeats to Luke Littler in both the World Masters and Premier League finals alongside success elsewhere on the circuit. “People are used to me winning a couple of majors a year and obviously I haven’t this year, and I haven’t probably for the last 15 months,” Humphries said. “But it’s been tight. One set, if I have a glorious set in the Masters, I win that. Luke misses that double top and I take out double eight, I’m sitting here with two major titles this year again. It’s fine margins.”
He was adamant that the lack of a major trophy should not be confused with a drop in his standard. “Average-wise for the season, it’s the best it’s ever been for me. It is. It’s a fact,” he said. “I don’t think my performances have really let me down. It’s more them crucial moments that let me down. I feel like I’m playing better than I’ve ever done. Like I said on the stage, I still think there’s another level in me. I’m just trying to find where that comes from.” Of Littler, he added: “I feel like I’m more hungry than ever to do it. It’s just sometimes there’s a certain player that gets in your way all the time and takes it away from you, but you can’t complain. He’s unbelievable.”
With Littler already eliminated from the World Grand Prix by Luke Woodhouse, Humphries has inherited much of the attention surrounding the title race. He was nevertheless quick to play down the significance of being installed as favourite. “There are so many players in it that could win this,” he said. “I don’t think anybody that’s left in this tournament, if they win it, anybody would be surprised. If you’re doubling in well and scoring steady, you’ve got a great chance of winning it.”
Humphries has more recent experience of reaching the closing stages of this event than anyone still standing. His maiden major arrived at the World Grand Prix in 2023 before he returned to the final in each of the following two editions. Victory over Zonneveld would move him one match away from making it four consecutive finals. “Regardless of what happens to me this week, I’ve done so great here,” Humphries said. “I’ve made three finals on the trot and not many players have ever done that in their careers. God forbid, if I do it again, four on the trot, then it’d be absolutely incredible. But I’d really like to not keep making finals and not win. I’d like to win one for once.”
Another trophy would also arrive under very different circumstances from the spell in which Humphries seemed to collect majors almost routinely. “When you’ve experienced all that achievement of winning a lot and then it goes away for maybe 12 months, and then you get that experience of winning again, it feels even sweeter,” he said. “Maybe if I was to pick the trophy up on Sunday, it would feel even sweeter than my second, third, fifth, sixth, seventh, because I’ve worked incredibly hard and not got the rewards over the last little while.”
Before Sunday can enter the equation, Zonneveld stands in his way after already knocking out Josh Rock and Gary Anderson. “He could be the Mike De Decker story from two years ago if all the players aren’t careful,” Humphries warned. “I’m going to treat him with the respect that he deserves. I’m really going to have to play like I did tonight, and if I do, then he’s got a tough game, just like I know if he plays like he did tonight, I’ve got a tough game.”
For a player openly searching for another level, Thursday's performance supplied a considerably better starting point. The next test is whether Humphries can reproduce it when his bid for a fourth successive World Grand Prix final continues against Zonneveld.
