Belgian Darts Open 2026: Luke Humphries beats Johnny Clayton in final then makes second best joke in the world

Luke Humphries claimed the Belgian Darts Open title with an 8-6 win over Johnny Clayton, then joked it would boost his bid to become “the second best player in the world”.

World champion Luke Littler’s shock third-round exit to Niels Zonneveld paved the way for England’s Humphreys to claim his ninth European Tour title by defeating Clayton.

Humphries (31 years old) defeated Chris Dobie 6-5 in the quarter-finals before defeating Michael van Gerwen 7-2 in the semi-finals.

Clayton won the first leg of the final, but Humphreys prevailed in the next six games to take a 6-1 lead only for the Welshman to counter-attack.

However, Humphreys denied Clayton the chance of a decider in the 13-bet first leg to take the title at Weezy.

“It’s one of those things where I feel like my game was there, and then it wasn’t, and then it was,” Humphries said on stage after his win over Clayton.

“Normally in those conditions I finish better, but when you don’t win as much it becomes more difficult and you get nervous.

“I am dedicated and work hard to push every darts player to be the best version of myself.

“I’ll keep trying to be the second best player in the world, it seems.”

Littler, ranked number one in the world, was eliminated earlier from the tournament after losing 6-5 to Zonneveld.

Littler was unbeaten in 12 consecutive matches in the tournament and was bidding for a hat-trick of victories in the Weezy, having won the event in 2024 and 2025.

But the 19-year-old Englishman suffered his first defeat in a rankings event since last October at the hands of world number 39 Zonneveld of the Netherlands.

Zonneveld was 3-1 down to Littler, after the opening exchanges went against the throw, before fighting back to take a 4-3 lead.

The 27-year-old Dutchman missed three darts in the first leg allowing Letelier to level the score at 136 points.

However, Zonneveld then hit an impressive score of 147 in the first leg to seal a memorable win over the Warrington teenager.