Humphries advances to World Grand Prix quarter-finals
Luke Humphries cruised into the World Grand Prix quarter-finals, joining James Wade, Gian van Veen and Niels Zonneveld in the last eight.
World number two Luke Humphries eased past Jermaine Wattimena 3-0 at the World Grand Prix in Leicester. The Englishman, who landed three 180s and a top checkout of 129, won the tournament back in 2023 but lost last year's final to Luke Littler, who has already been knocked out of this year's event.
Humphries will next face the Netherlands' Niels Zonneveld, who reached the quarter-finals by beating Gary Anderson 3-1.
Speaking afterwards, Humphries said the performance wasn't his best but was still solid, noting he consistently found his range with his opening three darts, which makes him hard to beat on his day. He said he rates his chances of lifting the title highly, despite admitting his form has been inconsistent lately.
Other last-eight finishers
James Wade, a two-time World Grand Prix champion in 2007 and 2010, kept alive his hopes of a third title with a 3-1 win over Stephen Bunting. In this tournament's format, where every leg must start and finish on a double, Wade took the opening two sets, dropped the third, then closed out victory in the fourth.
Gian van Veen, runner-up to Littler at January's PDC World Championship and a potential new world number two should Humphries fail to win the title, took the first set against Ryan Searle before slipping 2-1 behind. He fought back to level the match and then won the decider to set up a quarter-final meeting with Wade.
