2024 Betfred World Matchplay Day Semi Final Preview
2024 Betfred World Matchplay Day Semi Final Preview
World Champion and tournament favourite Luke Humphries opens up the show taking on underdog James Wade, and this will be followed by Michael van Gerwen.
Humphries Two Away From More History
He started as tournament favourite, and Luke Humphries is certainly living up to that and he will face James Wade in the Semi Final of 2024 Betfred World Matchplay.
Cool Hand has averaged over 100 in all of his games so far and if he were to do that tonight and in the final, he’d match a feat only previously achieved by Phil Taylor.
Humphries is on another level to everyone else and even when he finds himself in a tricky spot, he’s able to find the next gear and power through – just like he did against Stephen Bunting and Dimitri Van den Bergh.
James Wade has been the surprise package in this tournament and he’s left in the field with the top 3 players in the world. The biggest shock of all was the number of 180s James Wade hit in his last encounter with Ross Smith in which he hit 13 which was double what he had hit all tournament.
He will need to continue that fine form on the 180s, as well as averaging over 100, he hit three 100+ checkouts and pinned over 42% of his doubles. Quite simply, over such a long format, that’s as good as we’ve seen him for a long time and he will need to repeat against the current World Champion.
Michael v Michael
Michael van Gerwen finally laid last year’s UK Open final demons to rest against Andrew Gilding but it certainly wasn’t a performance that would have struck fear into Michael Smith.
MVG may have been feeling a sense of Déjà vu when trailing 8-7 but in this longer format, the plucky Goldfinger eventually ran out of steam and only managed to win two of the next nine legs.
Despite averaging a respectable 97 average helped by his 11 maximums, MVG alarmingly missed 38 of his 54 attempts at doubles so he can’t afford a repeat of that kind of finishing tonight.
If he does, then he’ll go the same way as Rob Cross, who gifted Smith a place in the semi-finals by missing 27 of his 34!
Bully Boy probably couldn’t believe his luck to beat one of the best players in the world right now 16-7 with an average of 96 but he won’t be complaining and will be feeling a hell of a lot fresher than he’d have expected.
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Saturday July 20
Semi Final Schedule
Luke Humphries v James Wade
Michael van Gerwen v Michael Smith
