Defending champion Luke Humphries is out of the PDC World Darts Championship in the fourth round after an astonishing performance from former winner Peter Wright.

Humphries was far from his fluent best and was eventually beaten 4-1 by the 2020 and 2022 champion.

Wright, who is seeded 17th, has endured a difficult year but said in the build-up that he was confident he could still match the levels of Humphries and teenage prodigy Luke Littler.

And so it proved. He averaged 100.93 – slightly higher than Humphries’ 99.23 – and had a staggering 70% success rate on the checkouts.

Humphries had fought back in the pre-match words – saying if he won this year’s event he would have matched everything Wright had achieved despite being 25 years his junior.

His bare numbers were still at a reasonable level – he was at 56.3% on checkouts himself – but there was a flatness about his performance and he was not able to produce that consistent high-level of scoring that has propelled him to the world’s best player.

His ranking as world number one is safe because the PDC Order of Merit is done over two years and Humphries has won six PDC major finals in that time.

For Wright this is a significant warning to others that he still has plenty of life left in him at 54.

Earlier this year, he endured a torrid Premier League campaign, winning just two of 18 matches, as he finished bottom of the eight-player table.

He will face the winner of eighth-seed Stephen Bunting against unseeded Luke Woodhouse in the last eight.

“Luke gave me a load of chances there, he didn’t play like he can,” Wright told Sky Sports.

“I’ve been struggling for form all year and it’s so annoying because I know I can still play darts.

“I’m a double world champion and I want to win it for a third time. I’m not too old and you only have to play well for two or three weeks the whole year. These three weeks are all that matters and I’m in the quarter-finals.”

Humphries’ exit, in theory, makes Littler’s route to the final easier with Bunting now the highest-seeded player he could play before Friday’s showpiece event.

“Just wasn’t to be tonight,” Humphries wrote on X.

“Credit to @snakebitewright [Wright], he was clinical and fully deserved the win.

“I’ve had the most amazing year as world champion, I’ll be back stronger in 2025.”