Luke Humphries is not fazed by his world title reign coming to an end, far from it, putting Alexandra Palace defeat behind him quickly and setting out new goals.
Cool Hand brilliantly won his first world title in January 2024, with his reigncoming to a surprise end in the last 16 a year later at the hands of Peter Wright.
With the defending champion out of the tournament Luke Littler went on to lift the Sid Waddell Trophy, beating Michael van Gerwen in the final.
It would be pointless to pretend defeat didn’t sting, but the world number one says it was not hard to get over because he sees no other option. There are more darts to throw and titles to win, the time to move on was immediately.
‘I had a great New Year. A lot of people were worried that the World Championship would depress me but it didn’t,’ Humphries told Metro. ‘I accepted the defeat, which you have to do. Obviously devastating to lose but the next day I woke up and was fine.
‘It didn’t feel like it hurt any more [than other defeats]. I’m quite a chilled guy, to be honest. If it goes it goes, if it doesn’t it doesn’t. That’s why you see me react pretty well to defeat.
‘There’s nothing you can do to change it. It’s not like I’d missed six or seven darts to win the game. I was just second best player in that game. You just have to accept that you’ve lost.
‘Of course you understand the magnitude and I’m no longer world champion, but I’ll always be world champion, that’s the most important thing in my mind. I’ve achieved that dream that every person in their sport wants to and I’m hoping I can achieve it again in the future.’
The 29-year-old is looking at the long game, eyeing up 20 years ahead of him in his career and knowing that remaining reigning champion of anything for two decades is impossible.
‘I don’t think it’s too dramatic. You’re world champion and then you’re not,’ he said. ‘It’s not something I’m going to lie in bed for two weeks and be upset about.
‘I’m still world champion just not the reigning one anymore. It happened in the Grand Slam, the Grand Prix. I can’t be 20-time world champion and retire, it was always going to happen, so you’ve got to accept it when it does happen.
‘If I’m lucky I can win two or three more World Championships in 20 more years of my career, so that’s 17 times out of 20 I’ll experience defeat, but that’s just something you have to accept and it’s quite easy for someone like me.
‘Not that I want to! Of course I was gutted to lose, but I got over it pretty quick. The quicker you accept it the quicker you can move on.’
Humphries has racked up a string of major titles since the second half of 2023 and intends to keep doing so, while keeping his targets realistic.
‘It’s hard to set yourself goals when you’ve achieved so much,’ he said. ‘Three big tournaments last year and four the year before that, if I start setting myself goals of five then you’re putting too much pressure on yourself.
‘Realistically I’m trying to win one or two majors a year. Which is more than realistic, it’s fair and not too much pressure. If I was to win one major a year for the next 20 years, that puts me on over 25. If I left my career on 25 majors I’d be well happy!’
On a specific target, he added: ‘The Premier League would be the one, if I had a target. I said last year I wanted to win the Matchplay and the World Cup and I did that. My target this year, if I was going to say one, would be the Premier League.’
Such has been Humphries’ consistency for 18 months that he remains world number one despite Littler becoming world champion, but does he consider himself the best player on the planet still?
‘It’s a tough question,’ he said. ‘I feel like I’m still one of the best players in the world.
‘The World Championship didn’t go my way and some people think I’m gone now, but I’ve won one of the last two majors, I won the Players Championship a month-and-a-half ago! People will write you off, they wrote me off after the Grand Slam and straight away I won the Players.
‘It’s hard to pinpoint the best player. Luke Littler probably is now, but you go back to last year Michael van Gerwen was the best player in the world for the first 2-3 months, then I was for 2-3 months, then Luke, then me again, then Luke again. It chops and changes.
‘Me and Luke are at the top at the moment but there’s an array of players below us who can definitely catch up.’
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