Luke Humphries and Luke Littler stay on a collision course on the Gamers Championship Finals after progressing to the quarter-finals on Saturday.
The second and third rounds passed off on a bumper second day in Minehead as reigning champion Humphries continued his defence of the title.
The world primary overcame Raymond van Barneveld and Damon Heta to take care of his bid for back-to-back Gamers Championship Finals titles, having swept apart Gabriel Clemens on a dramatic opening night time.
“I felt like I had so much more to give there,” mentioned Humphries, who’s relishing the prospect of a showdown with Littler if each gamers progress to Sunday’s ultimate.
“Luke is enjoying some completely phenomenal darts proper now. He is in all probability the very best participant on the earth in the intervening time, however I do know I’ve bought a degree to match that.
“Hopefully I can get to the final and give the fans what they want, but I’ve still got a couple of games to win before we can think about that. You cannot look too far ahead.”
Humphries averaged over 102 in beating Dutch icon Van Barneveld 6-3 within the second spherical, whereas he received 9 of the final 12 legs to see off Australian primary Heta 10-6 in Saturday’s finale
Contemporary from averaging 112.73 in opposition to Rob Cross on Friday night, Littler maintained his breathtaking kind with dominant wins over Ritchie Edhouse and Danny Noppert.
The newly-crowned Grand Slam champion received an outstanding tie in opposition to Edhouse, lacking double 12 for a nine-darter in a contest which noticed each gamers common 105.
Littler then backed this up with a 10-3 thrashing of former UK Open champion Noppert, averaging 104 and crashing in seven 180s to increase his profitable run to 10 matches.
“When I go on these little bursts, I feel like nobody can touch me in between,” claimed Littler, who has now climbed to a career-high of world quantity 4.
“I’m just very happy to win. I played really well against Ritchie this afternoon, and I felt comfortable tonight.”
Luke Littler extending his profitable streak to 10 matches as he reached the Gamers Championship quarter-finals
The 17-year-old will now renew his rivalry with World Grand Prix champion Mike De Decker within the final eight, after the Belgian conceded simply 4 legs all through Saturday’s double-header in opposition to Ian White and Niels Zonneveld.
Ross Smith additionally eased by way of to Finals Day, following up a brace of 6-1 wins over Dimitri Van den Bergh and Wesley Plaisier with a 10-1 thumping of 2023 UK Open champion Andrew Gilding.
Smith will now face Scott Williams, who moved by way of to his second televised rating quarter-final with comeback victories over 2012 runner-up Kim Huybrechts and Sweden’s Jeffrey de Graaf.
Mike De Decker averaged 101 in a six-leg blitz of Ian White within the afternoon session, earlier than operating out a convincing 10-4 winner in opposition to Niels Zonneveld within the final 16
Elsewhere, 2023 semi-finalist Ryan Joyce survived 4 match darts in opposition to Cameron Menzies earlier than seeing off Martin Schindler 10-6 to take care of his spectacular Minehead report to arrange a quarter-final conflict in opposition to Humphries.
Joyce survived 4 match darts to win by way of a dramatic second-round tie in opposition to Cameron Menzies, earlier than seeing off German primary Martin Schindler 10-6 within the final 16.
Dirk van Duijvenbode continued his revival with resounding wins over Florian Hempel and Jermaine Wattimena to arrange a last-eight conflict in opposition to Connor Scutt, who eased previous Mario Vandenbogaerde and 2018 champion Daryl Gurney to progress.
Earlier within the day, world quantity three Michael Smith suffered a second-round exit in opposition to Gurney, with Dave Chisnall and Nathan Aspinall additionally crashing out on the identical stage.
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