HUMPHRIES ADMITS LITTLER IS LIKE A BROTHER!
15/12/2024 By Phil Lanning
By Phil Lanning
LUKE HUMPHRIES revealed he feels like a brother to Luke Littler as they head into the World Championship spotlight again.
The defending champ takes on either Thibault Tricole or Joe Comito in his opener at the Ally Pally tonight.
Humphries, 29, admits it will be an emotional night and always a tricky task to defend the crown.
On feeling like an elder brother to The Nuke, he said: “Yeah, in a way I do because I feel like I’m the only person to really know who he was before.
“I’ve known him since he was 12 or 13, and I could imagine him as a 17-year-old – not telling him what to do but just giving him the odd bit of friendly advice.
“He does his own thing, as all teenagers do, but we get along and it’s just good fun being involved at the top end of the sport with someone of his talent.
“There’s only a high respect for each other, no animosity, no need for any of that.
“If you’d told me two or three years ago that all this was going to happen to me, I wouldn’t have believed it – and he probably wouldn’t have believed you, either.
“At the moment, we are battling it out with each other for trophies and if he takes his game to another level, I’m going to have to work so hard to catch him.
“He’s almost inspiring me to be a better player because I want us to keep enjoying it and keep having these battles on stage.
“I don’t think it’s necessarily good for the sport when one person runs away with everything – I’m not saying it creates a boredom, but it’s nice when you watch a tournament and you can’t say who’s going to win.”
Luke Humphries is top price 7/2 with Star Sports to hit the most 180s over the course of the tournament. Get your bet on Luke here.
The pressure on opening night always falls on the defending champ and Humphries knows that will be no different tonight.
He added: “It’s always harder second time around – when you are the favourite, with all the expectation on your shoulders, that can make it a struggle at the start of the tournament.
“But I managed to to get through those tight games against Ricardo (Pietreczko) and Joe (Cullen) I managed to show the real side of me, and from the quarter-finals I played great darts.
“It will be an emotional feeling, obviously, but I need to put that to one said because if you get too emotional on the day it only puts you under more pressure.
“To lose in the first round as defending champion would destroy a lot and ruin your Christmas. That’s not the way you want to go out, but there are no foregone conclusions now. There is so much depth you can have a tough time in the first round.
“Since Gary won it, there hasn’t been a world champion who defended the title and none has had an easy ride, whether it’s been Michael, Gezzy, Peter Wright or whoever.
“Being a world champion is hard, but doing it twice in a row is even harder.”
Star Sports
50% Money Back as a Free Bet if your first bet loses up to £25 + 25 Free Spins!
New UK/IE customers only. Sign up and place your first sports bet at odds of Evens (2.0) or greater and if it loses, get a free bet equivalent to 50% of your first bet stake (min £10), to a maximum value of £25, plus 25 free spins on Gold Horsey Winner. Full T&Cs apply. 18+ | BeGambleAware.org
Images by Taylor Lanning.
