Luke Humphries battles past Dimitri Van den Bergh to reach semis

Top seed Luke Humphries battled past Dimitri Van den Bergh to book his place in the semi-finals of the World Matchplay at the Winter Gardens in Blackpool.

It was a fast start from the world champion, who broke Van den Bergh in the opening leg and then again to lead 3-0 on the back of four maximums.

Van den Bergh – who beat Humphries in the final of the UK Open in March – then got on the board against the darts before pulling another leg back going into the first interval just 3-2 behind.

The Belgian – World Matchplay champion behind closed doors in Milton Keynes in 2020 – then levelled the match after the restart as Humphries failed to take out 46, which Van den Bergh then finished on to move ahead for the first time at 4-3.

Humphries stopped the rot to hold on his next throw, and then there remained little between the pair as the world champion took an 8-7 lead into the mid-session break.

A checkout of 115 followed by taking another leg off Van den Bergh's darts saw Humphries edge 11-8 in front, only for the Belgian to pull one back again before the next interval.

Humphries, though, then went up through the gears, with a stunning 164 finish seeing him win five straight legs to complete a 16-10 victory and moved into the World Matchplay semi-finals for the second straight year.

"After the first five legs I felt deflated and tired, which can happen in random games – I just did not feel the real Luke Humphries up there tonight," Humphries said on Sky Sports.

"But I said to myself 'just stick in there, work hard and don’t leg your mind play games with you’.

"I worked incredibly hard in that last session to get over the line, and it was a great performance in the last few legs."

In Thursday evening’s opening match, former champion Jam