Players Championship 17 Round-Up | Luke Humphries downs Jermaine Wattimena to seal second ProTour title of 2026

Luke Humphries returned to ProTour action today and has won Players Championship 17 defeating Jermaine Wattimena in an 8-4 win.

Humphries didn't average less than 100 apart from one game all day and after a while of not playing on the ProTour, he has returned with a vengeance. He had won the fourth tournament of the season but has now added to that.

To start, Wattimena opened the final with a 41 checkout to break Humphries. A 92 to leave double 20 for Wattimena. Humphries couldn't pin 102. Wattimena hit double 10 to go 2-0 up.

Humphries broke pinning 71 to break back for 2-2. He was now throwing for 3-2. Humphries pinned 112 to go 3-2 up. He had held throw as a result.

Wattimena holds throw to make it 3-3. But Humphries has pinned 78 to make it 4-3 to hold again. Humphries then missed 65 on double 20 and double 10 for 5-3. Wattimena busted 45 though on double 16 and Humphries returned for double five.

A 74 checkout for Humphries to make it 6-3. He was two away here. Humphries couldn't pin 124 and Wattimena returned for double 16 but he was still 6-4 up. Wattimena missed 107 and Humphries was back for double five to seal a 7-4 lead. A 48 checkout then claimed it for Humphries. He last week won through his first Premier League Darts night to book an O2 spot and will now head to Sheffield after tomorrow aiming to finish as high as possible after a performance that has buoyed him no doubt in Leicester.

Prior to the final, it was in fact Humphries that perhaps put in the best performances of the day and up until the Quarter-Final, he did not average less than 100.

But he didn't need to in said game as he saw off Wessel Nijman 6-3 with a 94 average in the process. Prior to that he saw off Christian Kist 6-2 with a 105, Justin Hood with a 109, Yorick Hofkens with 103 and Rhys Griffin 6-3 with a 112 which was his best of the day.

He then reverted to type during the semi-finals averaging 102. 'Cool Hand' hasn't hugely played on the ProTour this season and so he is certainly making up for lost time here.

While Jermaine Wattimena in reaching the final also produced one of the best displays of the day downing recent first time winner in Kevin Doets 111.05. He had seen off Stephen Bunting, Dimitri van den Bergh who had a resurgent run today and Stephen Burton in the latter stages.

In fact three out of the four semi-finalists were in fact Dutch as their continued dominance amid the great form of Zonneveld, Van Gerwen, Van Veen among others continues with Doets, Wattimena and Noppert reaching the last four.

In regards to other names, Jonny Clayton on his ProTour return reached the last 64. While Josh Rock fell with just a 90 average 6-5 to Samuel Price. Finally Pero Ljubic hit the worst average of the year of 57 on the ProTour and Raymond van Barneveld also lost early to Marvin Kraft after confirming earlier today that he was going to take a step back until September.