Gerwyn Price and Luke Humphries advance to the semi-finals of the Grand Slam of Darts. The two favorites show no weakness. Michael Smith narrowly misses a 9-darter.
Gerwyn Price and Luke Humphries have confidently advanced to the semi-finals of the Grand Slam of Darts.
Luke Humphries stood in the semi-finals of the Grand Slam of Darts
Humphries leaves Smith no chance
On his mission to defend the first place in the PDC Order of Merit, Humphries met the 2023 World Champion, Michael Smith. In the remake of the group duel (5:3 for Humphries), “Cool Hand Luke” won sovereignly with 16:8.
After Humphries moved away early with 4:0, Smith even managed to draw level with his English compatriot in the meantime (7:7). With a 138 high finish, the number one in the world prevented his first deficit of the game before he won eight of the last nine legs.
Smith misses 9-darter by a whisker
Humphries played with a three-dart average of 104.98 points in a different league than his opponent (93.05 points). Also his checkout rate was significantly higher than that of “Bully Boy” (30.77 percent) at 44.44 per cent.
In the eleventh leg, the two Englishmen then played big. Both players started with two 180s in the leg and stood at six perfect darts. Smith missed the 9-darter by a whisker, the ninth dart went into the single-12. Humphries didn’t succeed in the feat either.
Price follows Humphries into the semi-finals
In the first quarter-final of the evening, Gerwyn Price won clearly with 16:9 against Ricky Evans. “The Iceman” moved away early like Humphries (4:0) and didn’t let his opponent get any closer. Price succeeded in the revenge after he had lost out in the direct duel in the group stage (4:5).
With a three-dart average of 99.42 points, the Welshman just missed the 100-point mark, but was clearly stronger than Evans (93.85). On the doubles, Evans was even slightly more accurate with 40.91 percent than Price (37.21 percent).
“`