Worrying times for world number one? Luke Humphries handed only 7th whitewash defeat of career at Australian Darts Masters

Luke Humphries suffered a rare 6–0 whitewash defeat to Mike De Decker in Wollongong this weekend — just the seventh time in his PDC career that the world number one has failed to win a leg in a match.

Luke Humphries suffered a rare 6–0 whitewash defeat to Mike De Decker in Wollongong this weekend — just the seventh time in his PDC career that the world number one has failed to win a single leg in a competitive match.

The result came in the quarter-finals of the Australian Darts Masters, part of the 2025 World Series of Darts. With a brilliant display averaging 103.66 and a 46.2% checkout rate. The Belgian opened with a 14-darter before landing a spectacular 167 checkout to break. A second 18-darter followed for 3-0 before De Decker reeled off a 12-darter, then closed out the match with legs of 17 and 14 darts for one of the performances of his career.

Since gaining his PDC Tour Card back in 2018, Humphries has only been on the receiving end of such a scoreline in leg-play events against six other opponents: Mervyn King (2018), Karel Sedláček and Gerwyn Price (2020), Ted Evetts (2021), Max Hopp (2022) and Ian White (2024).

For De Decker, it formed part of an impressive run on his first appearance at a World Series event. The 29-year-old Belgian, who won famously beat Humphries to claim the World Grand Prix last year and reached the Belgian Darts Open final in March, went on to beat Damon Heta in the semi-finals before losing 8–4 to Luke Littler in the decider.

Littler’s victory was his first World Series title of 2025, adding to his earlier triumphs this year at the World Darts Championship, UK Open and World Matchplay. It also gave the 18-year-old a degree of payback for last year’s Wollongong final, where he was beaten 8–1 by Gerwyn Price.

The World Series continues next weekend with the New Zealand Darts Masters in Auckland (15–16 August), where Humphries will defend the title he won 12 months ago by beating Heta 8–2.