Dimitri Van den Bergh progressed to the quarter-finals of the World Matchplay last night where he will meet World No 1, Luke Humphries who he feels is ‘overlooked’ as current World Champion.
Dimitri Van den Bergh has progressed to the quarter-finals of the 2024 World Matchplay following an 11-5 victory over Jonny Clayton last night.
He will meet Luke Humphries who, despite a 102.34 average, had a hard fought 11-7 win over Stephen Bunting.
Speaking in his post-match interview, Dimitri knows he has a tough challenge ahead but hinted that Luke Humphries might not be getting the credit he deserves as the current World Champion…
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Dimitri Van den Bergh on “Luke Humphries Living In Luke Littler’s Shadow”
Looking ahead to his quarter-final match against Luke Humphries, “The Dreammaker” was respectful of the challenge he had ahead of him.
He emphasised multiple times that he was coming up against the World Champion.
Despite the praise, Dimitri basically stated that Luke Humphries was being ‘overlooked’ despite being the World Champion.
He said:
“I’ve called him a champ today, I’ve called him the big man today.
“Unfortunately Luke Humphries, I’m just going to point it out right now, he is the World Champion and he is still living in Luke Littler’s shadow.
“This is something that has never happened before in the past.”
This was the first time we’ve heard a player make this kind of statement about the two Luke’s and while he meant no direct criticism, it does show that the top players are paying a lot of attention to the two players…
"LUKE HUMPHRIES IS STILL LIVING IN LUKE LITTLER'S SHADOW" | Van den Bergh hails Humphries as the 'BIG MAN' but feels he's overlooked still
— Darts Now (@DartsNow_) July 17, 2024
🎯Dimitri Van den Bergh will battle Humphries in the World Matchplay quarter-final
🎥FULL INT.👇🏼https://t.co/932GMn464f pic.twitter.com/Cnipb5lzTi
Luke Humphries may be aware of his media perception but it doesn’t seem to bother him as he has no problem calling them out when necessary…
Luke Humphries Defends Luke Littler Against ‘Pressuring Papers’
Despite Luke Humphries being ‘perceived’ as being in Luke Littler’s shadow according to Dimitri, Humphries himself rarely shows any signs of this himself when being interviewed.
In an interview before Dimitri made this comment, Humphries actually went out of his way to defend Luke Littler saying:
“So many people put too much pressure on him, and it’s more the media, not you guys sitting in front of me but it’s more people like the papers.
“They put so much pressure on him and all the people at home say stuff like he’s not good enough anymore, he’s had a couple of bad games…
“I had a couple of bad games this year, I’ve had many, many bad games.
“He’s not playing bad, he just maybe felt the pressure of the situation but I can assure you he’s going to win many, many Major titles.”
He also mentioned that no one is unbeatable, referencing Michael van Gerwen’s comments the previous day.
Whatever people think about Luke Humphries, something that can’t be argued is that he has been operating as a model World Champion in 2024.
He gives honest opinions, defends players (particularly Littler) and the game and is just playing some high level darts on a weekly basis.
What do you think of Dimitri’s observation, Is Luke Humphries in Luke Littler’s shadow? Let us know in the comments below 👇
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