Luke Humphries revelled in the joy of reaching the World Grand Prix final after his ‘fantastic’ performance against Ryan Joyce drew comparisons with darts icon Phil Taylor.
The 29-year-old produced one of the most memorable displays in the tournament’s history, powering past his opponent with a devastating 5-0 victory to book his place against Mike De Decker in the final.
It led Joyce to describe Humphries as a ‘generational talent’, suggesting Newbury man Humphries can emulate ‘The Power’. But the world No 1 explained why he doesn’t believe he will ever reach the same level as Taylor, who won a record 85 major titles in his career.
“Ryan did say that, obviously it makes me feel fantastic. But the difference between me and Phil is that he would’ve put that performance in throughout the whole tournament… I’ve done one of them,” Humphries said.
“It’s not one of those things you want to be comparing. I’ll never be as good as him [Taylor], everyone knows that. But it was a fantastic performance, probably one of the best we’ve ever seen in a semi-final of a World Grand Prix.
“I’ve got to back it up, haven’t I? I’ve not won anything yet, of course I’m over the moon with that performance. It will give me great confidence going into [the final] tomorrow and I have to be somewhere near that [level] to take the game away from Mike because we know he’s playing well.”
Belgian ace De Decker continued his strong form with a 5-2 defeat of his compatriot Dimitri Van den Bergh to reach the showpiece event in Leicester.
Humphries kicked off the mind games by insisting his experience in the final will give him a clear advantage over his Belgian rival, although he acknowledged that it could be a difficult tie as De Decker faces his first final.
“If I play like that again, no one can stop you. If someone played like that against me, I couldn’t stop them either,” he added. “If I can play anywhere near that, it’s going to be a tough task for him.
“I don’t really see any nerves from him, I didn’t see any stuttering on the finish line against Dimitri, I know Dimitri had a lot of opportunities which I won’t do tomorrow, but I don’t see those nerves from him.
“It’s a situation I’ve been in so many times now, it’s my 10th major final and it’s his first, so I know what to do, he doesn’t. But that’s not to say he can’t do the job, probably no one expected me to win this last year against Gerwyn [Price] because he had the experience.
“The experience only counts sometimes, I’m hoping it does count for tomorrow and he doesn’t play his best because if he does, it’s going to be an incredibly tough game for me.”
