Featured Image Credit: PDC Darts/X
Topics: Luke Humphries, Saudi Arabia, Darts
Jack Kenmare
Luke Humphries was distracted by an "animated" staff member during his Saudi Arabia Masters win against Ryusei Azemoto.
The Riyadh Season event is currently taking place at the Global Theater in Riyadh, with eight high-profile PDC players coming up against eight Asian Tour representatives.
Stephen Bunting, Nathan Aspinall, Michael van Gerwen, Luke Littler, Gerwyn Price, Luke Humphries and Gian van Veen all secured their place in the quarter-final, while Danny Noppert suffered a surprise defeat to Man Lok Leung.
It was a relatively straightforward session for the majority of PDC representatives, including Humphries, who recorded a 6-2 win over Japan's Ryusei Azemoto.
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However, the former world champion's flow was somewhat disrupted when a member of staff from the Riyadh-based venue started throwing his arms in the air.
"One of the staff was waving his arms around a little bit," he explained after the win. "There's no left drop there, you can see people walking past, which is fine,"
"But someone was obviously getting animated and throwing his arms around, which you can see when you're throwing. I was trying to say, 'Look stop doing that'."
Ahead of his opener against Azemoto, Humphries spoke about his expectations for the inaugural Saudi Arabia Masters, which is the second event in the World Series of Darts calendar.
"It's going to be a very respectful atmosphere, it's going to be good. I think the key thing to understand is it doesn't take alcohol to have a good night," he said.
"I think a lot of people think if you don't drink then you can't have a good night. But I think that the Saudi people are very respectful and they will really be looking forward to seeing the great talents of what we produce. I don't think that (with) there being no alcohol (means) it's going to be a terrible atmosphere.
"What we need to understand is when you go to places like Saudi or Japan, these countries are respectful people. They don't cheer out, they don't jump out of their seats. They're just going to be really satisfied to sit back and enjoy a great sport and get to see what we do."
Humphries added: "I think it's going to be very respectful, but I think they're going to appreciate what they're seeing as well."