World champion Luke Humphries has despatched out a warning to teenage sensation Luke Littler to not lose kind by not practising or it would “come back to bite him”.

Humphries will face Littler on the opening night time of the Premier League in Cardiff on Thursday, reside on Sky Sports in a rematch of the world championship remaining which Humphries received 7-4.

Since the Worlds, Littler has had an unbelievable begin to his life on Tour, beating Michael van Gerwen to win the Bahrain Masters, hitting a nine-darter towards Nathan Aspinall on his option to glory, earlier than beating Humphries within the semi-finals of the Dutch Masters and in the end falling towards MVG within the remaining.

Despite such fast success for Littler with none follow, Humphries believes the 17-year-old must be cautious to not neglect his follow as it’s pivotal to remaining “in form”.

“I wasn’t surprised by his performance but I was surprised he hadn’t practised since the world final” Humphries instructed Sky Sports.

“You must watch out on this recreation to place in sufficient effort. If you’re feeling like you’ve got to the purpose in your recreation the place you might be nice and you aren’t practising, it would come again to chew you.

“It is essential he stays devoted and practises onerous as a result of that may be a level within the recreation the place you’ll be able to lose your self.

“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 really feel like that may be a huge level in your recreation you must deal with.

“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’s the kind of participant he’s, for those who do not put stress on him, he’ll beat you so I wasn’t shocked in any respect.

“He is part of the elite and rightly so.”

A debutant world champion within the Premier League

Although he’s the newly topped world champion, this would be the first time Humphries has taken half within the Premier League after being unnoticed in 2023.

While the omission damage on the time, he believes it’s key to how he has carried out so properly over the previous yr and he’s now within the good place, on account of onerous work and follow, to place in massive performances week in, week out on the Premier League stage.

“I was left out last year and I felt like I should have been in it with the way I performed at the back end of the year,” Humphries added.

“But, the made the right decision to not put me in and I made the right decision to practise, practise after that.

“I feel in the end I made the best determination and that was to not let it have an effect on me.

“It made me a better person, a better player, and was the right thing for my career.

“I’m now world No 1, world champion, and I’m significantly better geared up to be part of it.

“It is never going to go your way for all 16 weeks but I am going to make sure there are more good weeks than bad.”

Humphries’ new motivation? Staying world no 1 for so long as potential

Once you’ve got reached the “pinnacle” of any sport, it may be onerous to stay motivated or discover one thing new to spur you on to compete.

Humphries admits that he took time after his Worlds win to analyse what he now desires from his profession and staying world No 1 for so long as potential, plus getting one other massive win, is now what he has set his sights on.

“That was the one thing, when I woke up a couple of days after it I thought to myself, ”You have been motivated your whole life to become world champion, now you are, what do you wake up in the morning to look forward to what motivates you?,” he mentioned.

“I thought, being world No 1 and staying there motivates me. Once you hit the peak you don’t want to go down again.

“That is barely going to be potential with onerous work.

“What is important for me is to dedicate even more, practice harder, and keep working towards winning as many titles as I can.

“I feel the primary event I win as world champion would be the hardest as a result of I all the time wish to win one as world champion.

“That first one over the line will be important but I am going to work hard.”

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