Luke Humphries knows he has a target on his back as darts star bids to defend title at huge £600k World Grand Prix

LUKE HUMPHRIES admits everyone is out to “de-throne” him as he bids to remain the current king of darts.

The World No.1 has had a sensational year with five major titles in 10 months.

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It all began with a crushing defeat of Gerwyn Price in the World Grand final a year ago in Leicester - and now he begins his defence on Monday against Stephen Bunting.

‘Cool Hand’, 26, knows he has a target on his back.

He said: “Everyone wants to beat you and obviously I’ve won quite a lot. Everyone wants to take those titles away from you.

“I’m not going to give them up so it’s a constant battle for me to work hard and keep everyone at bay.

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“Of course the talent out there is so great that it’s hard for me to keep winning all the time. I’ll just keep riding the wave.

“There’s no pressure on my side, I’m not defending too much on the rankings.

“I’m just defending the titles. There’s plenty of opportunities for me to win many more major titles this year. But it’s going to be incredibly hard.

“I’ve got many titles to defend before I worry about the World Championship. That’s the one you are looking forward to.

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“I really want to defend that one. That changes lives. My aim is to be back-to-back two-time world champion because that’s a record I haven’t got to my name yet.

“These are the accolades I want to keep achieving. That’s something that’s definitely up there for me now.

“But hopefully I can be in a hot run of form before going to the Worlds like I was last year and retain it.

“But, like I said, it’s going to be tough. Everyone wants to de-throne me, hopefully they don’t.”

Bunting has already KO’d freshly crowned World Champ Humphries in the second round of the Masters back in February, on the way to winning the title.

The order of play at the World Grand Prix

World Grand Prix action kicks off at 6pm on Monday.

8x First Round matches

• Josh Rock vs Ryan Joyce
• Brendan Dolan vs Martin Schindler
• Jonny Clayton vs Ritchie Edhouse
• Nathan Aspinall vs Ryan Searle
• Raymond van Barneveld vs Ricardo Pietreczko
• Luke Humphries vs Stephen Bunting
• Rob Cross vs Luke Littler
• Gian van Veen vs Ross Smith

But Humphries believes winning the Players Championship against ‘The Bullet’ last week was a vital warm-up.

He added: “This was important for me. When you’re on the big stage, it feels different. I feel better than ever on that big stage.

“I know I’ve got a really tough game against Stephen because he’s usually so strong on his doubles, but these are the moments I live for now.

“I want to play the best and be involved in these great games, and hopefully it’s a great World Grand Prix. I would love to retain it.”