Luke Humphries won his maiden European Tour title with a remarkable Easter success in the Interwetten German Darts Grand Prix at Zenith in Munich.
Former World Youth Champion Humphries has made huge strides towards establishing himself in the world’s top 16 by the past 18 months, reaching the 2021 UK Open final and winning his first Players Championship earlier this year.
He has taken a further step on the ladder towards the sport’s elite following a stunning German Darts Grand Prix victory, which was capped by an 8-2 defeat of Martin Lukeman in Monday night’s final.
Humphries also achieved the remarkable feat of whitewashing Michael van Gerwen 7-0 in the semi-finals with a brilliant display, averaging 107 and finishing seven doubles from 12 attempts whilst limiting the Dutchman to just one dart at the outer ring.
The Newbury star had also followed up Sunday’s second round win over Jeffrey de Zwaan with ton-plus averages in defeating Michael Smith and Wesley Plaisier during the final day.
He led 2-0 in the final before Lukeman hit back to trail 3-2, but five straight legs saw Humphries pull clear to close out a memorable win.
“This means the world for me and I’m absolutely over the moon with this win,” said Humphries. “This is the biggest thing I’ve ever done in darts.
“It’s been a gruelling, long day and I’ve worked hard. I hit three hundred averages to get myself into the final.
“I think I deserved it but you don’t always get what you deserve in life. I’ve got a ProTour title, a Euro Tour title and the next one’s a major, isn’t it?!”
Lukeman’s dream run to a first European Tour final had begun on Saturday as he defeated Adam Gawlas before seeing off Germany’s Gabriel Clemens in round two to book a spot in the final day.
The Watford thrower then edged out Keane Barry in a deciding leg, saw off Martin Schindler 6-4 and then overcame Damon Heta 7-5 to seal a place in the final, where he earned a career-high £10,000 pay-day.
Humphries added: “I’ve known Martin for a long time, since before he was on the tour.
“He smashed me in a competition about five or six years ago, and he said to ‘you’ll make it big-time, you’ll win titles’ and he was right.
“Little did we know six years later we were going to be in a big PDC final!”
Van Gerwen had produced ton-plus averages against Rob Cross and Keegan Brown as he won through to the last four, only to see his bid to claim back-to-back European Tour titles shattered by Humphries.
Heta was also in fine form during Monday’s latter stages, defeating Scott Waites and Jonny Clayton before being edged out by Lukeman.
Plaisier won an all-Dutch third round tie with Dirk van Duijvenbode as he reached the last eight alongside Premier League star Clayton, German favourite Schindler and former World Youth Champion Brown.
The next PDC European Tour event will be the Austrian Darts Open in Graz from April 29-May 1, with coverage available through DAZN in Germany, Austria and Switzerland and through PDCTV in other worldwide territories.
2022 Interwetten German Darts Grand Prix
Monday April 18
Afternoon Session
Third Round
Martin Lukeman 6-5 Keane Barry
Martin Schindler 6-1 Ryan Searle
Damon Heta 6-3 Scott Waites
Jonny Clayton 6-1 Max Hopp
Keegan Brown 6-4 Madars Razma
Michael van Gerwen 6-3 Rob Cross
Luke Humphries 6-3 Michael Smith
Wesley Plaisier 6-5 Dirk van Duijvenbode
Evening Session
Quarter-Finals
Martin Lukeman 6-4 Martin Schindler
Damon Heta 6-5 Jonny Clayton
Michael van Gerwen 6-2 Keegan Brown
Luke Humphries 6-5 Wesley Plaisier
Semi-Finals
Martin Lukeman 7-5 Damon Heta
Luke Humphries 7-0 Michael van Gerwen
Final
Luke Humphries 8-2 Martin Lukeman
