The World Matchplay at the Winter Gardens in Blackpool enters its second quarter-final on Thursday, with world champion Luke Humphries facing former Matchplay winner Dimitri Van den Bergh.
The Dreammaker won this event in 2020 and has advanced to the semi-finals in three of the last four editions, thus he cannot be ignored by world number one Humphries, who has never won this competition.
The statistics
Dimitri Van den Bergh defeated Martin Schindler 10-6 in the first round, hitting nine darts.
The Belgian also had the highest checkout the previous time he met Humphries in March.
Luke Humphries has averaged 108 and 102 in his two tournament victories over Ricardo Pietreczko and Stephen Bunting, respectively.
Both of these lads have won the PDC World Youth Championship: Van den Bergh in 2017 and 2018, and Humphries in 2019.
Prediction
Luke Humphries has been his usual vicious self in his first two games at the World Matchplay, as the PDC number one seeks a rare championship he has yet to claim.
He reached the semi-finals last year and will try to do so again when he faces Dimitri Van den Bergh, who won the title in 2020.
Humphries is a short price to win after dominating Ricardo Pietreczko 10-4 and Stephen Bunting 11-7 in the tournament’s first two rounds.
The world number one has little attraction at the current prices, and the way into this duel for punters may be through the highest checkout market.
Humphries’ scoring prowess means that he frequently leaves his opponents behind on high finishes as he goes about his business.
This means that players will often have numerous opportunities to take out a high checkout, as seen in Cool Hand’s first two games, where Pietreczko and Bunting both got the highest finish.
The selection came in the last meeting between these two men in March, and Dancing Dimi has a chance to record the highest checkout again on Thursday.
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