Day 6 World Grand Prix – Mike De Decker to take on defending Champion Luke Humphries

De Decker in dreamland against the Dreammaker

Once more, Mike De Decker’s debut dream lives on. Despite not having the best of starts, giving up the first set of the match as well as all three of the opening legs. In spite of this, he recovered fast, hitting three maximums in the next set, and winning set two ahead of his countryman Dimitri van den Bergh.

De Decker would reel off three legs in a row to win a set and take a slim 2-1 lead overall, just as Dimi did in the first set of the match. Like in set four, he would expand his lead again, but this time he wouldn’t miss a chance at double throughout this set.

In the next set, the Dreammaker pulled in the biggest fish of the evening with an amazing 170. It was the highest checkout of the evening. Even though De Decker answered right away, it wasn’t enough to take the set ahead of the Belgian number one.

At the World Grand Prix, this would be the last set that the UK Open Champion would win. De Deckers won the next two sets to finish with a convincing 5-2 victory, reaching his first-ever World Grand Prix Final at the first time of asking, pinning nine maximums in total, as opposed to Dimitri’s seven, and achieving an average of 86.32.

The Title Defence continues

Ryan Joyce was always going to have a difficult time defeating the current champion, Luke Humphries. But given Joyce’s recent victory over the favoured Rob Cross, nobody anticipated it the way the World Champion did.

Luke Humphries put on a brilliant performance, defeating Joyce with a comprehensive whitewash win. As with the last game, the first set of the game ended without any answers. Even though Relentless Ryan averaged 105.32 and didn’t miss a double, Cool Hand would still win the next set.

Joyce would pin his last leg of the evening after Humphries pinned an incredible 144 checkout in the third-set of-five. The World Number One put on another fantastic display in set four, surpassing his previous 144 checkout and pinning yet another 146 in the matter of days.  He would finish the match with another comprehensive victory after averaging above 100 from sets two through to five.

In the end, Humphries would again emerge victorious, surpassing his opponent and recording an average above 100. Setting up a matchup with Mike De Decker as he looks to make it successive World Grand Prix titles.

 

Day 6 World Grand Prix

Saturday 12th October 2024

Results

Mike De Decker 5-2 Dimitri van den Bergh

Luke Humphries 5-0 Ryan Joyce