Emotional Luke Humphries overcomes bad news as he explains Australian Darts Masters gesture

The World No.1 dug deep to triumph Down Under against Mike De Decker and gave the reasons for his actions at the end of play

Emotional Luke Humphries overcame “bad news” to fight his way through at the Australian Darts Masters.

The World No.1 was forced to dig deep to defeat Jonny Tata and set-up a last-eight clash against World Series debutant Mike De Decker.

After hitting the winning shot, Humphries made a gesture of appearing to kiss his hand before pointing a finger to the sky.

Humphries didn’t not want to expand on the private moment straight after the match as he said: “Yeah, I can’t talk about it right now. You’ll find out. It’s just bad news today.”

Cool Hand did have little hesitation in admitting he’s let his form slip in recent times due to lack of sufficient practice and added: “I’ve been on holiday and stuff, a lot of other things have been on my mind.

"When I lost [at Matchplay], I was obviously disappointed to lose, but of course there is positives in a loss, and I get to spend more time with my family. Of course, I’d love to win everything, but when you don’t, there is positives in there.”

Humphries is not putting huge store in the outcome of this event in Australia or next week’s World Series tournament in New Zealand as he continued: “I’m just going to enjoy these, have a bit of fun with my dad.

"It’s been hard for my dad recently. He’s been going through a lot with other things that everyone will find out about soon.

"But it’s not been easy for him, so it’s nice to come over here and have a bit of time out. I’m on holiday straight away after I come back from New Zealand for 10 days.

“As soon as I come back from that holiday, I think the next one I have after that is the Czech Darts Masters. that’s when I’ll be on it. I’ll start practising harder again because I have neglected it, I’ll be honest. Since the Premier League, to be honest.

"I think when you’re in the Premier League, you’re playing all the time, you don’t neglect it, you’re on the ball.

“But since that Premier League, I’ve just not had the mindset to want to practise a lot. That’s my fault. That’s me being guilty. It’s not been one of the things I’ve done many, many years of my life.

“Usually, I’m quite consistent with practising, but I’ve been guilty of it. When I come back from that holiday, I’ll be back on it and really have that energy in charge to try and have a good back end to the end.

“If I win both events, it’s not going to change anything. When I come back from the holiday and I’ve finally had a good rest and a good enjoyment with my family then I can come back and defend the Grand Prix, Grand Slam, the Players’ Championships, the World’s.

“I’ve got all this to defend so I have an ambition in my mind to want to try hard and practise hard. I’ve not been putting the effort in.

"It’s not an excuse. It’s my own fault. If I was sharp, I would have probably been a lot more better in the Matchplay.

"Again, it’s only one person to blame. It’s myself. It’s not like I regret it.

“It’s just sometimes you get found guilty of not battling hard and working hard. I say it all the time, when I won the Masters, I said I was going to practise harder than ever and I didn’t.”

Despite his admission, Humphries was determined to make the long trip across the globe and said: “The PDC give you so much, they’re so respectful and I’ve earned so much money from the PDC, you kind of look at this one and feel like you have to give something back.

“Obviously, a lot of the players don’t want to travel because it’s school holidays and they want to go on their own holidays. But for me, I feel like this is the one that you really have to commit to sometimes and give something back.

“I think me and Luke [Littler] have had such a busy year this year, but we feel like we have to give something back to the PDC. Of course, we won’t be here every year because we have to have a break from it.

“Especially for me, I have kids. I can’t be away every Australia for two or three weeks and miss my kids’ holidays.

"My stepdaughter, she’s got six weeks off and I don’t get to be there to entertain them.

“So, of course, I feel like you have to give something back. I love it here.

"It’s a great country. It’s great people and when I’m over, I enjoy myself. But of course, I have a family at home that I also owe a lot to as well.”