Luke Humphries believes only one player has ‘performed at an absolutely incredible level’ at Alexandra Palace so far and that is Callan Rydz.
The World Darts Championship is quickly reaching the fourth round stage, with some players already safely into the last 16 in north London.
There have been plenty of chances to impress, and while there have been a lot of good performances so far, the defending champion reckons only one person has really turned in a display somewhere near their very best.
Cool Hand picked out Rydz’s 3-0 win over Romeo Grbavac in the opening round when the Riot averaged 107.06, dropping just two legs.
‘I’ve been watching it as a fan, so I’ve been watching a lot of the players,’ Humphries said after winning his third round match against Nick Kenny.
‘And I just kind of don’t really see anybody that’s really put their hand up and performed at an absolutely incredible level.
‘The only one off is Callan Rydz. I didn’t see that game but that’s the only one that’s really performed, to me. I mean Luke [Littler] had that incredible last set [against White] but before that he wasn’t firing on all cylinders.
‘And none of us have! So I think there’s a lot of pressure on everyone this year. I think everybody’s sort of seeing an opportunity, and it’s kind of making everyone try too hard.’
Rydz followed up that first win with a another 3-0 victory over Martin Schindler, although it was not the same kind of display, averaging 91.05 that time.
He is back for his fourth round clash with Dimitri van den Bergh on Sunday afternoon and knows that if things click again he is a match for anybody.
‘I know if my game turns up I can mix it with everyone,’ he said. ‘Once I come back after Christmas, if I don’t have too many pigs in blankets, I should be alright.’
Humphries is back in action on Sunday night against Peter Wright in the fourth round after a little bit of mind games from Snakebite before Christmas.
After winning his opener, Wright predicted he would be meeting Raymond van Barneveld at this stage and not Humphries, but after the Dutchman was beaten by Nick Kenny and then Humphries downed the Welshman, his prediction was some way off.
‘These little old guys can still do it. I believe Barney [Raymond van Barneveld] will beat Luke and then me and Barney will have the best game ever that you’ve seen on that stage,’ Wright predicted.
Humphries said after beating Kenny: ‘I didn’t read the whole interview but I saw what he said and I’m thinking: how many times have people said, “This is gonna happen, this is gonna happen”, and it never happens.
‘Michael [van Gerwen] is a good example of that. He’s said so many things over the years, “I’m gonna smash this, smash that”, and he loses.
‘Peter said something like, “Barney is gonna smash me and Peter is gonna smash Jermaine [Wattimena]”… well, he got his end of the bargain.
‘I think Peter loves to play the mind games but it doesn’t work with m. I’m one world title away from almost matching his career and I’m about 25 years younger.
‘One world title would sort of match everything he’s ever achieved in the game so I don’t look into it too much. I think he’s trying to play the mind games but unfortunately for him, it doesn’t work for me.
‘And it probably doesn’t work for Luke [Littler]. He said he doesn’t fear us but if I don’t fear someone then I don’t keep mentioning them all the time.’
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