The tale of the two Lukes at the Grand Slam of Darts could not be more different, with Humphries crashing out and Littler steamrolling his opposition.
Luke Littler won each of his group games, against Dimitri Van den Bergh, Keane Barry, and Lourence Ilagan, which included a stunning 106.98 average as he dispatched the former 5-1.
Luke Humphries, on the other hand, suffered shock back-to-back defeats to World No. 56 Mickey Mansell and James Wade to fall at the first hurdle.
With Cool Hand’s exit, Littler is now the tournament favourite and he’s revealed he’s reaction to Humphries’ early exit.
Luke Littler shocked at Luke Humphries’ Grand Slam exit
In his post-match press conference after his victory over Ilagan kept his 100% record, The Nuke offered up his thoughts on Humphries’ stunning departure from the Wolverhampton event.
“I just couldn’t believe it,” Littler told Darts Now about the exit of his fellow 2023 World Championship finalist.
The Nuke continued: “I thought he would have would have went through but obviously now I’ve just got to focus on myself and hopefully win the next game.”
Littler is set to play World Grand Prix winner Mike De Decker in the second-round of the Grand Slam of Darts.
Who’s going to win the Grand Slam?
With Humphries out, the field looks wide open in Wolverhampton with plenty of players hitting peak form during the group stages.
Littler has been supreme in the round-robin section, righting the wrongs of his poor performances in front of the Sky cameras over the last few months.
Gary Anderson looks back to his best, winning all three of his group-stage matches and averaging over 100 in two of them.
Gian Van Veen, too, has every right to lift the trophy should he continue at the level he’s shown in the group stages.
The young Dutchman navigated the so-called ‘Group of Death’ with relative ease, dispatching Josh Rock, Stephen Bunting, and Wessel Nijman with 100+ averages in each.