Luke Humphries or Luke Littler? Russ Bray is clear on darts' current top dog: "He is the best player in the world, no two ways about it"
PDC
Later tonight, the second week of the 2025 Premier League Darts will be played in Glasgow. On Night One in Belfast last time out, the world number one Luke Humphries sent an early warning to his rivals, taking the nightly win in comprehensive style, bouncing back strongly after losing his world title to teenage sensation Luke Littler.
With successive wins over Nathan Aspinall (6-2), Michael van Gerwen (6-5) and Chris Dobey (6-1), Humphries kicked off his second Premier League Darts campaign in style. Putting that nightly win alongside his victory at the inaugural PDC Winmau World Masters recently, 'Cool Hand' is going some way to silence the doubters that had started to emerge after a disappointing PDC World Darts Championship defence at the Alexandra Palace.
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Whilst Humphries remains some way clear at the top of the PDC Order of Merit, nearing in on crossing the landmark £2million mark, the fight to be considered best player in the world is a lot closer between the world number one and the recently-crowned world champion Luke Littler. Although the opinions of experts, fans and players alike seem split between Littler and Humphries, in the opinion of former referee turned PDC ambassador Russ Bray, it's 'Cool Hand Luke' who remains the man to beat.
"The world number one is Luke Humphries," says Bray firmly in conversation with Sky Sports. "For me, he is the best player in the world, no two ways about it at the moment. His form has proven that and the titles that he's been winning over the last six / eight / ten months. I mean yeah, he lost his World Championship title, but goodness me he makes it up in all the other ways. He's always there or thereabouts and that's the beauty of Luke Humphries."
For his part, Humphries recently claimed, somewhat modestly, that Littler is the best in the world. "Luke Littler's performing the best and he's just been a bit unlucky - he has a target on his back being the world champion," said Humphries after winning in Belfast on Night One of the 2025 Premier League Darts. "He [Littler] is playing well, he's just a bit unlucky at the moment but he does drive you on. He makes you want to be better and he's a fantastic talent, he's just going to be so great over the next 20 years and it's up to me to get better to try and challenge him."
"No two ways about it at the moment" 🤝
— Sky Sports Darts (@SkySportsDarts) February 13, 2025
Russ Bray has no doubts Luke Humphries is the best player in the world 📈 pic.twitter.com/PFhefV9Zaq
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