Luke Humphries has progressed through to the semi-finals of the Grand Slam of Darts with a 16-10 victory over Michael van Gerwen.
After Gerwyn Price lost to Raymond van Barneveld on Friday evening, Van Gerwen had been the highest-ranked player left in the tournament in Wolverhampton.
However, the Dutchman will not end his five-year wait to win a fourth Grand Slam title after he was outplayed by Humphries on Saturday night.
Having missed eight darts to go 2-1 in front, Van Gerwen was always behind as Humphries produced one of his best performances in a televised tournament, producing finishes of 140, 167 and 132 during the middle stages of the match.
While Van Gerwen still averaged 95.99, he was second-best throughout the match, and only avoided losing by a wider scoreline courtesy of a 104 checkout in the 25th leg.
HUMPHRIES DUMPS OUT MvG!
— PDC Darts (@OfficialPDC) November 19, 2022
Luke Humphries claims one of the biggest wins of his career, defeating Michael van Gerwen to reach the semi-finals!#GSOD | QF
📺 https://t.co/iVFvdbIrWJ pic.twitter.com/wC6DagWpCv
Nevertheless, Humphries sealed his place in the last four in the following leg, setting up a showdown with Nathan Aspinall.
Like Humphries, Aspinall will be competing in the semi-finals in Wolverhampton for the first time after he defeated Scotland's Alan Soutar by a 16-12 scoreline.
The first match of the evening took a similar path to Humphries versus Van Gerwen, the former UK Open champion keeping his nose ahead from the early stages.
Although Aspinall claimed after the match that he had been disappointed with his performance, he still averaged 95.19, hit seven maximums and checked out at 46%.
Aspinall and Humphries will meet in the second semi-final on Sunday afternoon, with Van Barneveld taking on world number Michael Smith before their meeting.
Darren Plant
