Luke Humphries 'nowhere near best' despite whitewash win in World Darts Championship opener

Yesterday at 06:55 PM

Luke Humphries began the defence of his World Darts Championship title with a 3-0 stroll past Thibault Tricole, despite being ‘nowhere near’ his best.

The defending champion won all nine legs in the comfortable victory over the Frenchman, who had beaten Australia’s Joe Comito earlier in the evening to earn a crack at the world champ.

It was a bit of a damp squib for Tricole, though, as Humphries only needed to average 90.79 to canter to a whitewash victory.

The defending champion will now return after Christmas for a third round meeting with either Raymond van Barneveld, Nick Kenny or Stowe Buntz and he does not really care how he got there.

‘Not the best performance from myself, I didn’t feel like I was very clinical in moments,’ he said.

‘After the walk on it took me back a bit a little bit. The crowd were so amazing. That was one of the best crowds I’ve ever been in a room with. It made me feel amazing. I don’t get that very often so it was really nice.

‘Performance-wise it was nowhere near my best, but it’s two different tournaments, all that matters is you win tonight.

‘Now you go into the second part of the tournament, come back after Christmas, that’s when you can be at your best and you can really think about being world champion.’

He added: ‘I always said, if you’re going to get me, get me early. That’s the one. Now I feel like I’m going to be a lot more relaxed when I come back and that’s when I’m most dangerous.’

The 29-year-old is bidding to become just the seventh player to win multiple PDC World Darts Championship titles.

The world number one is set on that goal, aiming to round off another brilliant year which has seen him win the World Matchplay and Players Championship Finals.

‘Incredibly proud,’ he said of his year as world champion. ‘I think probably for me it’s been one of the better years since Michael van Gerwen, when he was world champion. There’s been a lot of world champions since.

‘I’ve won three majors this year, including the World Cup, a couple of Euro Tours, so I’m pretty proud of the way it’s gone.

‘If I don’t end up being world champion then I’d be proud of the year because it’s been great, but it would be a beautiful way to top it off, to be back-to-back world champion.’