Humphries ended the 17-year-old’s dream run at Alexandra Palace over the winter by coming from 4-2 down to lift his first world title with a 7-4 victory in the final.
Since their maiden clash on the Ally Pally stage, Littler has triumphed over ‘Cool Hand’ four times, including in the quarter-finals of his first-ever Premier League night win last week in Belfast.
Humphries recovered with an incredible performance in the German Darts Grand Prix, thrashing seven-time Premier League champion and three-time world champion Van Gerwen 8-1 in Monday’s final.
After the no-contest, the 29-year-old hailed Van Gerwen, insisting they were the world’s two best players and that they would face off in many finals in the future.
On Tuesday, a story on the talkSPORT website titled his comments as if he had directly snubbed Littler. A post on X to plug the story read: “Luke Humphries doesn’t see Luke Littler as his world no.1 rival.”
Humphries was left unhappy with how his words of praise for Van Gerwen were framed, taking to the platform a day later to hit back.
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