Luke Humphries has reclaimed the World Grand Prix title and in doing so has created breathing room in the race for the World No.2 spot on the PDC Order of Merit. The champion came from 3-0 down to stun Gerwyn Price 6-4 in Sunday's final at the Mattioli Arena in Leicester, sealing £150,000 and becoming only the fourth multi-time champion in the 28-year history of the tournament. Humphries had not won a major since last year's Premier League, coming up short in many a final due to the prowess of Luke Littler.
Humphries now sits at £1,081,000 compared to £1,029,750 for Gian van Veen, boasting a £50,000 gap between them. The Dutchman has been breathing down Humphries' neck for some time, and while Humphries is unlikely to keep him off unless he keeps winning majors, he has created some breathing room. Luke Littler still holds a huge lead over the field, sitting £2 million ahead of the competition, hence why 'The Nuke' has been less plussed about attending tournaments as of late. Littler lost in the first round of the World Grand Prix to Luke Woodhouse and went on to play the World Youth, where he lost in the semi-finals for the second consecutive year to Cam Crabtree this time. He will defend money towards the end of the season, and next year will see that £1 million drop off unless he defends the World title.
James Wade's run to a first World Grand Prix semi-final in a few years has seen him climb one place to become World Number Five ahead of Jonny Clayton. His next player in his sights is Gerwyn Price, who solidified fourth with his run to the final at the World Grand Prix. Price is on £793,000 compared to £686,250 from The Machine. The top four would seal him a Premier League return, so for Wade, it is in his best interests to try and go further up the Order of Merit to get what he craves. It seems like this year, Wade will be hard to ignore when it comes to selection.
In terms of other movement, Danny Noppert has gone up to seventh at the expense of Josh Rock, while Nathan Aspinall has shone this week, climbing four spots to 11th after his resurgent run to the semi-finals. Stephen Bunting has slipped further down to 13th after being a familiar feature of the top five and a Premier League star; it seems likely that he will need to fight for such a spot this time. Niels Zonneveld was also a big winner this past week, moving up to World No. 29 as a result of his run to a first major ranking quarter-final. He is up six spots and has broken into the top 32 for the first time in his career. He was the main big riser in the top 32, with most of the others being up one or two spots. Jermaine Wattimena is into the top 16 for the first time, rising up one spot, while Krzysztof Ratajski, Dirk van Duijvenbode, and Damon Heta in the 19th-21st are all up one and two spots in the place of Heta. Ryan Joyce is further into the top 25 after his run sitting in 24th, while Cameron Menzies, Kevin Doets, Andrew Gilding, and Daryl Gurney, after him until 28th, are all up one spot too before we find Niels Zonneveld.
Trouble lies ahead for Mike de Decker, Dimitri van den Bergh and Martin Schindler. Ross Smith and Chris Dobey have fallen down to 15th and 17th, down one spot each respectively. The 2024 champion De Decker falls down nine spots to 33rd after failing to qualify for this year's event. His compatriot Dimitri van den Bergh failed to qualify for a second successive year and remains in huge danger of losing his Tour Card. He drops a further 13 spots to 59th. Martin Schindler too could soon be in trouble. Albeit not a tour card yet, he failed to qualify for the first time in five years and didn't have much of a chance of doing so. Such has been his demise, and he is down four spots to 23rd in the Order of Merit. Others to fall include Michael Smith down one spot to 37th and Raymond van Barneveld down four spots to 44th, while Brendan Dolan is down four to 53rd as his Tour Card could soon be in jeopardy.
