"You have to be ruthless": Luke Humphries didn't enjoy whitewashing best friend Ryan Searle but says no room for sentiment

Luke Humphries dropped just two legs as he hammered both Ryan Searle and Ryan Joyce, two quality operators to reach the Quarter-Finals of the UK Open.

But in reality the former in particular harboured a mixed feeling as he faced one of his best friends and won 10-0 handing him a one sided demolition job. Humphries though said he has no time to feel sorry for his mates as it could soon turn against him if he allows them any breathing room.

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"I've got to hand it to myself. I think I was pretty consistent throughout the whole day without being extraordinary. My finishing was good, my scoring was decent. I put the opponents I played today under pressure and that's always important. You don't want to give anything anyway and I didn't today," said Humphries post match.

But despite not going to the well, he said it wouldn't have been a problem if he did get pushed like he did against Greaves. "I wouldn't have minded. I'm happy to dig deep and have hard days. It's nice and pleasing for yourself that you make light work of two absolutely fantastic players so for me it's obviously a massive confidence boost. If you're making light work of those sort of people, you know you're playing well."

After beating Beau Greaves, Luke Humphries had the opposite against Joyce and Searle where he barely lost a leg.

On facing Searle, he also described the text exchange between the pair and how they were going to see each other but it soon turned into the nightmare none of them wanted.

"It's not a good feeling. I didn't walk off over the moon and happy about it but like I said to my partner, you have to be ruthless. If you go 8-0 up and feel sorry for someone and they go one leg, two legs and then four legs all of a sudden they win a couple more and they're 8-6 and you're like what have you done. I didn't like the feeling of it because I expected a tough game. But I'm there to win and that's the most important thing."

"We were texting each other last night and I was going to go down and see him and then obviously it was too late. The draw was happening, the names come out and you're thinking the chance of that happening is like 0.1%. Gutted to play each other but we're in this as a business. You have to play your friends, you have to be ruthless."

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