PDC Order of Merit update: Luke Humphries extends lead over Luke Littler with Euro Tour title in Czechia

Luke Humphries solidified his lead on the PDC Order of Merit after winning the Czech Darts Open for the third time last weekend. With £1,808,750 in prize money, 'Cool Hand Luke' still leads the world rankings.

At the Euro Tour tournament in Prague, Humphries won over Dirk van Duijvenbode (6-4), Martin Schindler (6-3), Wessel Nijman (6-5), James Wade (7-1) and Josh Rock (8-5) in succession. It earned him the top prize of 30,000 pounds, strengthening his lead slightly over competitors Luke Littler and Michael van Gerwen.

Over the next few months, Humphries will especially need to defend a lot of prize money. After all, the world rankings are rankings based on players' performances over a 104-week period. So the Englishman will have to defend his results from 2023 this autumn. That very period was the most successful spell of Humphries' career. After all, he won the World Grand Prix, Grand Slam of Darts, Players Championship Finals and then the world title as well.

In the virtual ranking for the PDC World Darts Championship, Littler is now already ahead of Humphries. 'The Nuke' has no prize money to defend until the tournament at Alexandra Palace because, at the time, he was not yet in possession of a PDC Tour Card. At the Worlds, the stakes will then be 200,000 pounds for Littler, but Humphries will have to defend 500,000 pounds.

Far behind the two Englishmen, Michael van Gerwen is still comfortably in third place. His lead over number four Stephen Bunting is over a ton, while Bunting is only 14,500 pounds ahead of his compatriot James Wade. Behind them follows a club of players in which the difference is particularly small. Between number six Jonny Clayton and number sixteen Peter Wright is less than £100,000 in prize money.

Within the top-16 of the world rankings, there was only one change after the Czech Darts Open. Ross Smith, who lost to Wade in the last sixteen in Prague, took over the 13th spot on the PDC Order of Merit from Dave Chisnall. Slightly lower down the world rankings, we see that Jermaine Wattimena took over the 25th spot from Daryl Gurney, while Joe Cullen managed to rise to 29th place at the expense of Ricardo Pietreczko.

Krzysztof Ratajski had to surrender four places, dropping from 33rd to 37th position. The reason? Two years ago, Ratajski won a Euro Tour tournament in Jena in early September, while last weekend he failed to advance beyond a second round. Ratajski's fall made Cameron Menzies, Raymond van Barneveld, Scott Williams and Brendan Dolan gain one place.

Niko Springer is well on his way to securing a spot in the top 64 already in his first Tour Card year. After his spot in the second round at the Czech Darts Open he moved up three places and can now call himself number 70 in the world. Cor Dekker made a small jump due to his participation in the Euro Tour tournament in Prague. Despite his defeat in the first round, he kept 1,000 pounds in prize money. As a result, he moved up from 131st place to 122nd.

Two ranking tournaments will be played in Hildesheim this week. Halle 39 then hosts the 26th and 27th Players Championship tournament, where 15,000 pounds are waiting for the winner each time. Next weekend the World Series Finals is scheduled, but that tournament does not count for the world ranking. Later this month there will be Euro Tour tournaments in Hungary and Switzerland and three more Pro Tours in Leicester, before the World Grand Prix (Oct. 6-12) is the next ranking major.