Luke Humphries wins Players Championship 28 after win over Brendan Dolan as Luke Littler knocked out in semi-finals

Luke Humphries beat Brendan Dolan in the final to win his third Players Championship title of the season on the second day of action in Leicester.

Humphries, who reclaimed the world No 2 position in the PDC rankings from Gian van Veen during the course of the day, beat Ireland's Dolan 8-6 to win PC28 for his first title in the series since PC17 in May, also held at the Mattioli Arena.

Dolan had defeated Luke Littler 7-4 in their semi-final to deny the world No 1 a blockbuster meeting with Humphries.

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Humphries beat Mike De Decker 7-4 in his semi-final, two rounds after surviving six match darts against Danny Noppert to win that match 6-5.

Littler was making just his second Players Championship appearance of the season after a quarter-final defeat to eventual PC27 winner Jermaine Wattimena on Tuesday.

Having sat out the first 26 Players Championship events this year, Littler is aiming to make the top 64 on the Order of Merit over the tournaments that remain to qualify for the finals in Minehead in November amid his bid for a historic clean sweep of PDC major titles this season.

A quarter-final and semi-final appearance in Leicester mean he now sits in 125th place in the Order of Merit, £16,750 behind 64th place. Six events remain before the finals with Littler needing to play, and play well, in further events if he is to have a chance of making up the further ground required to qualify.

He still needs to win the World Series, World Grand Prix, European Championship, Grand Slam of Darts and Players Championship Finals this season in order to achieve something no one has ever managed in the sport.

The World Series event takes place in Amsterdam on September 17-20 and finishes two days before the next Players Championship double header gets under way in Den Bosch, by which time Littler will know whether or not he remains on course for the clean sweep.

Littler has won every major title on the PDC circuit so far in 2026 - the World Championship, Masters, UK Open, Premier League, World Cup of Darts and World Matchplay.

On Wednesday in Leicester, Littler made light work of Stephen Rosney in the first round, winning 6-4, before his day nearly ended in the next round as he survived six match darts against world number 107 Benjamin Pratnemer, eventually winning a final-leg decider.

Quickfire wins against Martin Schindler, Andy Boulton and Krzysztof Ratajski sent him through to the last four, but Dolan was too good for him

'I don't want him to have the clean sweep' - Humphries keen to deny Littler major history

Humphries returned to competitive action this week for the first time since his shock round-one exit to Cameron Menzies in the World Matchplay on July 20.

He lost 6-3 Cam Crabtree in Tuesday's first round in Leicester but returned on Wednesday to win all seven of his matches.

Humphries was only playing in his ninth such floor event the year, although he has now won three times after victories at PC4 and PC17.

He sits 13th in the standings and with £52,000 won so far is effectively assured of featuring in Minehead.

"To be honest, I know it sounds crazy being one of the best players in the world, I just came here for a bit of practice. Just to get myself in and feel normal again," said Humphries.

"I've only played that matchplay in two months so I just had to get myself back into it. I didn't want to go straight in to the Euro Tour this weekend with no practice.

"Obviously that's the reason I was here but once you get to the latter stages you're like 'right, ok, you can go on and win this now'. I must admit, I didn't really think I'd go on and win one this week because of the lack of practice, but I've had two good days, a lot of practice and hopefully in the next couple of weeks or couple pf months I can keep building on that.

"I'm going to get back on the practice board at home as much as I can now and I'm going to dedicate the rest of the year to trying to be my best and trying to push Luke - and not just Luke, but everyone else because I want to stay at No 2. Whether that happens or not, I'm going to fight for it because I'm going to try my best.

Asked whether the win would give him an extra boost heading to the Hungarian Darts Trophy this weekend, Humphries replied: "One hundred per cent. It's good confidence because I didn't really play my best but I still managed to go on and win.

"I don't think a lot of people have played their best these last two days, to be fair. It's been funny. Luke hasn't played his best either. Had a couple of good runs, he won't care.

"Obviously, I'm kind of just looking about trying to get a bit of practice and I've done that so for me now it's about putting in the dedication for the rest of the year because I want to go on and win a major.

"I don't want him to have the clean sweep. As much as everyone would love to see it, I'd love to win one this year and go to the Worlds in a bit of confidence.

"So this will do me good and I'm going to enjoy tonight and enjoy the moment."

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