World champion Luke Humphries determined to keep proving people wrong
The 29-year-old missed out on the UK Open title on Sunday.
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.World number one Luke Humphries has vowed to ignore the haters after just missing out on winning more silverware.
Humphries missed match darts against Dimitri Van den Bergh in the deciding leg of the UK Open final in Minehead on Sunday to claim what would have been a fifth major ranking title out of the last six.
One of those includes winning the World Championship at the start of 2024, but despite such dominance which has seen him outperform Michael van Gerwen, Michael Smith and Luke Littler, Humphries still has to prove people wrong.
Humphries says he is still navigating the spotlight and the attention it brings.
“It is silly from me because I am the one that is allowing it to happen,” the 29-year-old told the PA news agency.
“You’ll always have it, if I go three months without winning I will have people on my back.
“I feel like a couple of weeks ago everyone was saying I was the worst ever world champion, I was falling off, I am rubbish and I always come back out and prove people wrong.
“I know I didn’t win. I proved again that I might not be the best player in the world, but I am one of the best.
It gets to the point where you just have to accept that everyone is not going to like you or believe in you
“For me it is all about learning, I am new to having this stardom of being the world champion and world number one, but I did prove everyone wrong.
“I had a great tournament, these are really tough weeks. I will keep working hard and keep going, there’s plenty more majors to win.
“It gets to the point where you just have to accept that everyone is not going to like you or believe in you.
“If you and your family believes in you then I don’t think anyone else matters, they all do and I believe in myself.
“I don’t want to throw it all away by putting too much pressure on myself, I know there is plenty out there for me in the future.”