The PDC World Darts Championship is in full swing and reigning champion Luke Humphries can already start looking forward to his turkey tasting very sweet on Christmas Day.
The defending title-holder and world number one came through a second-round match with Thibaut Tricole 3-0 and didn’t drop a single leg during a comprehensive Ally Pally rout.
Humphries won the PDC World Darts Championship for the very first time last year when he beat the teenage sensation Luke Littler in an entertatining final.
This year, he will be hoping to defend the crown that he claimed last year and prove to everyone that he’s very much the world’s best player right now.
Luke Humphries names two players he wants to win PDC World Championship
For Littler, his tournament has began yet and he will be watching closely tonight as he awaits the winner of Ryan Meikle and Fallon Sherrock who are third up on Tuesday evening.
Humphries is on a collision course to meet Littler in the semi-final if all goes according to plan and with that in mind, he’s been quizzed on who he’d like to win the event should have encouter an exit at any stage.
He told the Happy Hour Podcast: “If I didn’t win it, if I could choose, I’d choose Ryan Searle as he’s one of my best friends in darts. For the sport, I’d like to see Luke Littler win it because it’s going to kick things off and make it bigger. But yeah, if not me, I’d love to see Ryan Searle win it.”
Searle will hope to improve PDC World Championship record
Humphries is unlikely to get his wish for Searle to win a world title this year – and it remains to be seen whether the 37-year-old will ever get his hands on the Sid Waddell Trophy.
When it comes to the major events he’s never really cracked them. He reached the final of the Players Championship Finals in 2021 but other than that he’s only ever been to two major quarter-finals.
Searle is a top player on his day, however, and he will hope that his day in the sun can be on the horizon and a major title can be within his grasp at some point during his career.
Littler is far more likely to go all the way than Searle at the tournament this year. As Humphries says, it would be great for darts if he can tick the biggest title of them all off and the interest in the sport could go through the roof.