Luke Humphries has stopped Luke Littler’s rise in London for the time being and is world darts champion for the first time. He defeated the 16-year-old challenger Littler 7:4 and, after the biggest success of his career to date, can look forward to prize money of 500,000 pounds (just under 600,000 euros).
“I can’t put into words how great this feels,” said Humphries in an initial reaction. He fought back tears in the confetti rain. In addition to the check, the 28-year-old Humphries can also look forward to the 25 kilogram Sid Waddell Trophy.
In recent days, Littler’s story has been reminiscent of that of the young Boris Becker, who sensationally won the prestigious Wimbledon tennis tournament at the age of 17. But the final victory failed to materialize.
Littler came into the tournament as junior world champion, but such a series of successes including reaching the final seemed completely unrealistic in advance. With victories over former world champions Raymond van Barneveld (4:1) and Rob Cross (6:2), Littler fueled the hype surrounding himself. The defeat in the final is now a setback, but Humphries, as clearly the best player of 2023, was also the favorite going into the important tournament at Alexandra Palace.
More and more media came to London over the course of the tournament and TV ratings in Great Britain rose. Experts compared Littler to the young Lionel Messi.
At best as an outsider
At the last World Cup final, 66-year-old cult referee Russ Bray showed The Nuke, as Littler is also called, actually had nerves – right in the early stages. But Humphries also got off to a flawless start. But the youngster Littler got stronger and drew attention with two strong finishes (142 and 120). In the dynamic game, in which the commercial breaks lasted as long as the sets, the score was 2:2.
The favorite Humphries had to smile again and again at the enormous rip-off of his young opponent. While Humphries came to London as a title contender after winning titles at the World Grand Prix, Grand Slam of Darts and the Players Championship Finals, Littler was previously considered an outsider.
That didn’t stop him from putting in a strong performance in front of 3,000 spectators in the biggest game of his young career. Fired up by the euphoric audience, the game was tight and exciting, with a consistently high pace of play. And Humphries really turned up the heat after 2:4 and triumphed.
Luke Humphries has stopped Luke Littler’s rise in London for the time being and is world darts champion for the first time. He defeated the 16-year-old challenger Littler 7:4 and, after the biggest success of his career to date, can look forward to prize money of 500,000 pounds (just under 600,000 euros).
“I can’t put into words how great this feels,” said Humphries in an initial reaction. He fought back tears in the confetti rain. In addition to the check, the 28-year-old Humphries can also look forward to the 25 kilogram Sid Waddell Trophy.
