Michael van Gerwen the only non-English player in the World Matchplay. Surprise James Wade is in the semi-finals

The World Matchplay darts tournament continues. We already know the names of the first semifinalists and today the remaining four players will go into action in the quarterfinals. The English continue to confirm their dominance, with five players currently in the tournament, with only Michael van Gerwen remaining. It is therefore certain that there will be at least three English players in the semi-finals.

• Luke Humphries and James Wade will play for the final spot in the World Matchplay
• James Wade is showing great current form
• In the remaining matches, the favourites won

The quarter-final matches were dominated by the English

England’s James Wade is putting in a great performance at the tournament. Although he is only 22nd in the world rankings, he made it to the semi-finals of the tournament, where he got past Ross Smith, whom he beat 16:10. Wade posted a great 100.3 average in the match and threw in thirteen 180s.

He confirmed the great play he has been showing all tournament. In the first round, he took on 12th-ranked Danny Noppert, and although he only threw two 180s, it was enough to win 10:5. In the eighth round, he faced the world number five, Nathan Aspinall. Against him, he scored only one maximum, but still pulled his average above 90 and won 11:8.

Wade will now meet fellow countryman Luke Humphries, the world number one, in the semi-finals. He challenged Dimitri van den Bergh yesterday. The Belgian didn’t look too good at the start, losing 0:3 and not getting into the game. Fortunately for the match, he started to do well and the lead changed from side to side.

However, ‘Cool Hand Luke’ took more advantage and won 16:10. In addition, he scored an average of 101.21 and an incredible closing 164 points. World number nine Van den Bergh is still in the running for a place in the next Darts Premier League.

There were no surprises in the final eight matches

In the eighth round, another Englishman, this time Joe Cullen, took on world number two Michael van Gerwen. The Dutchman was of course the favourite and at the beginning it even looked like a fairly easy match. but the ‘Rockstar’ started to take more and more chances that MVG offered him and got more and more into the match.

It almost seemed like it was a disadvantage to have your own serve as players were taking them from each other. In total, they took the serve nine times. So, the deciding factor was to hold their own serve, and Michael van Gerwen was better at that, winning 11:8 on leggies.

In the other eight-final match, surprise winners Ratajski and Gilding met, knocking out Dave Chisnall and Peter Wright. Gilding fared better in their match, beating the Polish player 11-5. He now faces another challenge, namely knocking out van Gerwen. This quarterfinal match will be played today from 21:10.

The rest of the spider was already purely English. Michael Smith and Chris Dobey met first. It was a very even match, although it didn’t offer much of a 180, with both scoring four maximums each. Smith, the third player in the world, eventually won 11:9.

The last eight-final match was a duel between Rob Cross and Ryan Searle. Even though Searle threw one more 180, nine in total, he was no match for Cross. And that’s mostly due to an amazing 106.99 three-dart average. Cross kept the match close and won 11 to 6.

Quarterfinal matches are scheduled for today from 21:10. Van Gerwen will be looking to make sure the tournament doesn’t remain all about the English players as his opponent will be Andrew Gilding. From 22:40 Michael Smith will play Rob Cross, which promises to be a very interesting match.

Source: PDC