Luke Humphries STUNNED by Cameron Menzies on Night 3 of the 2026 World Matchplay
Luke Humphries STUNNED by Cameron Menzies on Night 3 of the 2026 World Matchplay
The first round of the 2026 World Matchplay concluded on Monday night, with the 2024 champion Luke Humphries taking to the stage against Cameron Menzies. Elsewhere, Gerwyn Price, Ross Smith and Danny Noppert also got their Blackpool campaign underway.
Smudger dismantles Doets
Ross Smith kicked off the night with a brilliant performance over the much-fancied debutant Kevin Doets. It was the 2022 European Champion who came out of the blocks flying, leading 5-0 at the first interval, pinning a clutch 160 checkout early doors to set the tone.
Despite a mid-match fightback from Doets, it was Ross Smith who continued to impress, eventually winning the match 10-6 with a 120 finish to reach the Last 16 of the World Matchplay.
Price punishes Schindy
Gerwyn Price managed to overcome Martin Schindler to reach the second round, despite a lacklustre early performance from the Welshman. It was a torrid end to the match for Schindler, who found himself missing so many chances to pull well clear of Price and become only the second German to win a match at the World Matchplay.
Martin Schindler managed to hit a 121 checkout to force a tiebreak, but ultimately lost 11-9 to the 2022 finalist.
Magnificent Menzies dumps out Humphries
The performance of the evening goes to Cameron Menzies, who pulled off the biggest shock of this year’s tournament, dumping out World Number Two Luke Humphries.
Menzies was ultra composed throughout, finding himself five legs clear of Humphries with an 8-3 lead. Cool Hand upped his levels, however, winning four consecutive legs to reduce his deficit to just one.
Eventually, Cameron Menzies won a gruelling encounter with the biggest finish of the lot, reeling in the first 170 finish of the World Matchplay to pull off a famous win and win 10-7.
Cross concludes the second round draw
The final game of the evening saw an intriguing matchup between number 10 seed Danny Noppert and former World Matchplay winner Rob Cross.
“Voltage” showed his class from start to finish, blitzing the opening exchanges to take a 5-0 lead, which Noppert could not recover from.
The form of Rob Cross has improved drastically in the last few months, and he brought that form to the Winter Gardens stage, setting up a second-round showdown against Gerwyn Price with a 10-3 thrashing over Danny Noppert.
The second round of the 2026 Betfred World Matchplay gets underway live on Sky Sports on Tuesday night!
2026 Betfred World Matchplay
Monday July 20 (1900 BST)
Round One x4
Ross Smith 10-6 Kevin Doets
Gerwyn Price 11-9 Martin Schindler
Luke Humphries 7-10 Cameron Menzies
Danny Noppert 3-10 Rob Cross
2026 Betfred World Matchplay
Tuesday July 20 (1900 BST)
Round Two x4
Jonny Clayton vs Gary Anderson
Michael van Gerwen vs Dirk van Duijvenbode
Luke Littler vs Nathan Aspinall
Josh Rock vs Stephen Bunting
