Luke Humphries, Michael Smith, Gerwyn Price and Ricky Evans secured their places in the last eight of the Grand Slam of Darts in an eventful evening on Wednesday, with world number one Humphries stealing the headlines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Humphries averaged a mammoth 108.55 \u2013 the third-highest average ever in the Round Two of the Grand Slam \u2013 in his spellbinding 10-3 victory over Jurjen van der Velde, despite playing through a suspected pain in his neck and back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The 2023 champion strolled to a 5-0 lead, averaging north of 119 after five legs, which included a ten-dart leg where Humphries took out the traditional nine-dart checkout of 141 to leave and then take out tops.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite a spirited performance from Van der Velde, who took out a 164 checkout in defeat, the world number one closed the game out 10-3 with a 77% checkout success rate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt was probably one of the best performances I’ve ever had in my life<\/em>,\u201d admitted Humphries, who will face Smith in the last eight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI woke up this morning and couldn\u2019t get my head off the pillow, I\u2019ve had a bad neck for a few days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s been a struggle for me all day. It\u2019s crazy how you can perform like that with an injury I\u2019ve had to deal with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI cannot believe I\u2019ve done that. I’m in a lot of pain now, it’s hurting me, but I’m a fighter. I put everything on the line tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Smith edged through an epic encounter with Chris Dobey, where twenty match darts were missed before Smith stole a 10-9 win.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After Dobey took an early 5-2 lead, Smith levelled at 5-5 with a magic 164 checkout and then took the advantage at 7-6.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The St Helens star then missed two match darts before Dobey forced a deciding-leg, where 18 more match darts were missed \u2013 including a whopping 11 from Dobey \u2013 before Smith took out double four to stumble into the quarter-final.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHe kept missing and I was thankful for that,\u201d acknowledged Smith, \u201cI should never have been in that match or been in front, I should never have won, but I will take it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cEvery game I play now, they always go to last legs, and I hate it, it\u2019s doing my head in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSomething was on my side tonight, I\u2019ll take it. I came to this tournament to win it and I know I’ve still got a shot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019ve always believed I\u2019ll win tournaments. I might not be physically fit, but mentally I’m still the same person.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Three-time champion Price also secured his spot in the last eight with a 10-6 win over Martin Schindler which included an excellent start and finish to the game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Price sped into a 5-1 lead but took his foot off the gas as Schindler reduced the deficit to 6-5. The Welshman took out a huge 170 finish to begin his stellar finish to the game, closing the match with an 11-darter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI think that was a difficult game,\u201d said Price, who earned a tie with Evans in the last eight with his triumph.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cTowards the end, I started to play a little bit better and so did he, but I was just happy to get over the winning line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis is my favourite tournament, and I always seem to do well here. With the crowd behind me now, I think I\u2019ll do even better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI know Ricky [Evans] has been playing fantastic this year. Over the longer format as first to 16, I think it goes in my favour a little bit as I’ve been in this situation before.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Evans broke new ground to reach the first Grand Slam quarter-final of his career, by defeating Luke Woodhouse 10-9 in a last-leg decider.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Woodhouse produced a mid-game burst to lead 8-5, but after missing two darts to go 9-5 up, Evans rattled off five of the next six legs to complete the comeback.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI don\u2019t think that\u2019s it\u2019s hit me that I’ve won yet,\u201d said Evans. \u201cI always seem to win the scrappy ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI just threw fast and they seemed to go in, and the crowd got behind me again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI think [Woodhouse] is one of the most underrated players in world darts, he is a proper darts player. It was good fun.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Round Two will conclude later tonight, as defending champion Luke Littler takes on rising star Wessel Nijman for a place in the last eight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Three-time champion Michael van Gerwen will face fellow Dutchman Danny Noppert for a shot at the quarter-finals, whilst debutants Lukas Wenig and Niko Springer will lock horns in an all-German affair.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Josh Rock, who dumped out European Champion Gian van Veen, will clash with Connor Scutt for a chance to face Littler or Nijman in the quarter-finals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Luke Humphries, Michael Smith, Gerwyn Price and Ricky Evans secured their places in the last eight of the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4341,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[59],"class_list":["post-5955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","tag-darts"],"aioseo_notices":[],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/2025WGPR2_Humphries12_compressed.jpg",2000,1333,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/2025WGPR2_Humphries12_compressed-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/2025WGPR2_Humphries12_compressed-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/2025WGPR2_Humphries12_compressed-768x512.jpg",640,427,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/2025WGPR2_Humphries12_compressed-1024x682.jpg",640,426,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/2025WGPR2_Humphries12_compressed-1536x1024.jpg",1536,1024,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/2025WGPR2_Humphries12_compressed.jpg",2000,1333,false],"morenews-large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/2025WGPR2_Humphries12_compressed-825x575.jpg",825,575,true],"morenews-medium":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/2025WGPR2_Humphries12_compressed-590x410.jpg",590,410,true]},"author_info":{"info":["admin"]},"category_info":"International<\/a>","tag_info":"International","comment_count":"0","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/2025WGPR2_Humphries12_compressed.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5955"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5955\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5956,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5955\/revisions\/5956"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
RESULTS<\/strong>
Second Round<\/strong>: Ricky Evans 10-9\u00a0Luke Woodhouse; Gerwyn Price 10-6 Martin Schindler; Luke Humphries 10-3 Jurjen van der Velde; Michael Smith 10-9\u00a0Chris Dobey<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"