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Topics: Luke Littler, Darts
Jack Kenmare
World number one Luke Humphries has sent a warning to Luke Littler following the "surprising" comments he made after winning this month's Bahrain Masters.
The 17-year-old thrower secured £20,000 in prize money on January 19, when he recorded a convincing 8-5 win over three-time PDC world champion Michael van Gerwen in the Bahrain Masters final.
Littler, who reached the World Championship final just weeks prior to his debut in the World Series, later claimed that he had "not even 10 minutes of practice" going into the tournament.
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When asked for the best moment of the last month, the teenager told The Guardian: “Probably going to Bahrain last week and winning that tournament with not even 10 minutes of practice.
"No one believed me when I said I’d not thrown a dart since the World final.”
Since making those comments, Luke Humphries has warned Littler, who will make his Premier League debut next month, about his lack of practice on the board.
"I wasn't surprised by his performance but I was surprised he hadn't practised since the world final," Humphries told Sky Sports.
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"You have to be careful in this game to put in enough effort. If you feel like you have got to the point in your game where you are great and you are not practising, it will come back to bite you.
"It is important he stays dedicated and practises hard because that is a point in the game where you can lose yourself. I know players who have done that, Michael Smith has openly admitted he didn't practice all last year then all of a sudden he lost his form.
"So, I feel like that is a massive point in your game you have to focus on. But he had a lot of tough performances, Gezzy [Gerwyn Price] and Michael didn't turn up against him and allowed him to go on.
"But that is the type of player he is, if you don't put pressure on him, he will beat you so I wasn't shocked at all. He is part of the elite and rightly so."
Speaking to ITV's Dan Dawson after winning his first senior ranking title, Littler admitted that, prior to his first round match against Man Lok Leung in Bahrain, he hadn't thrown a dart since that match against Humphries.
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"I'm happy to win, and earlier on in the quarters I obviously hit the nine-darter against Nathan," he said. "I played well yesterday, and I played well again tonight.
"Nobody probably believes me, but I've not thrown a dart since the world final, and yesterday was the first proper practice I put in. It's all paid off.
"I'm just happy to win, obviously against Michael, who's still one of the best, the very best. I'm just happy to win on my debut.
"It's been unbelievable this week. We've got us eight [PDC-selected participants in the tournament] in the Premier League, and the eight Asian players [in the tournament] were brilliant as well. I'm just happy to come out as the winner."