Luke Humphries has taken aim at James Wade and his actions after refusing to shake hand with his opponent before losing to him in the UK Open – albeit he’s deleted his rant on social media
Luke Humphries called out James Wade and his antics in a post on social media – before later deleting it.
The former world champion was beaten by Wade in the last eight of the UK Open last week. Humphries lost a thriller 10-9 before Wade then went on to thrash Josh Rock 11-2 to reach his first TV final since 2023. However the animosity between the pair was clear to see.
They did not shake hands as is usually customary before the deciding leg and Humphries suggested on social media it wasn’t a case of sour grapes, instead he’d been rattled by how Wade was acting throughout the contest.
Humphries said in a now-deleted post: “Everyone loves to see people be a bad loser but I’m generally one of the best losers in the sport. I wasn’t going to give someone who didn’t deserve my respect after what he was doing through the game a hug and be all happy about it that’s just my honesty.”
Humphries, who had claimed Premier League victory in Exeter just days earlier, has previously copped it from Wade. The Machine laughed off the idea that he couldn’t still compete for titles as he backed his ability before suggesting Humphries and Luke Littler, whilst being the top two players, were both prone to a bit of laziness.
He said: “I still think it’s laughable that people don’t think I can win things, what will be will be. I still think I’ll win TV majors and I don’t see any reason why not. After tonight’s performance, not great.
“I don’t believe anyone’s amazing apart from probably Luke and Luke [Littler and Humphries] and after that they can be quite lazy. They are not Phil Taylors. They are not Michael van Gerwens at their best, but they are phenomenal players. But there are gaps in the market and it is what it is.”
Humphries was quick to hit back at those accusations, labelling himself as one of the tour’s hardest workers. Wade didn’t enjoy the fairytale end to his UK Open journey and he was crushed 11-2 in the final but Littler, who landed himself another £110,00 with his eyes now on becoming the World No 1.
The teenager said: “At the World Championship, Luke will be defending a hell of a lot of money, and if he doesn’t defend it, that could be my chance to shoot up to No.1. Obviously if I play him in ranking events, I want to stop him from defending his prize money. I think No.1 is in sight now. When Luke went out in the quarter-finals here, everyone probably thought, ‘Littler’s going to win it now’ but I still had a job to do.
“As I have said many times, I want to win every major at least once, so that’s another one ticked off my list, and now I can focus on the Premier League in Brighton on Thursday.”
