The World Grand Prix concludes on Sunday when the final of the double start tournament takes place inside the Mattioli Arena as Luke Humphries looks to keep the title he won last year when he takes on Mike De Decker.
Humphries has become something of a winning machine since he opened his account for TV majors here a year ago. That is something that the Belgian will be looking to emulate here so we have an intriguing battle.
Luke Humphries
The world number one Luke Humphries arrived in Leicester to defend a major title for the first time with many expecting him to go well but perhaps others were preferred initially, largely because Luke Littler was in his half of the draw and he had a bit of a stinker of a first round opponent in Stephen Bunting. Bunting really should have taken care of Humphries in that opening stage but missed a match dart and from there ‘Cool Hand’ hasn’t really looked back.
He arrives into this final having improved as the tournament has gone on but he’ll do well to improve on his semi-final showing, which was one of the best displays ever seen in this event when he did a serious job on Ryan Joyce, averaging over 100 in the process. No part of the Humphries game looks out of touch but his scoring is often the difference maker. He just isn’t out of a leg and when he is he ploughs in a maximum to put his opponent under pressure and just picks them off if they succumb to that scrutiny.
Mike De Decker
You would have done well to have suggested that heading into the week Mike De Decker would have been statistically the best player in the field heading into the semi-finals, largely because you probably wouldn’t have expected the Belgian to be in the last four when you consider his route there was going to be Damon Heta, Gary Anderson and then James Wade. That was the case though and while there is no denying that his worst performance came in the semi-final, he still had more than enough to get the better of his compatriot Dimitri Van den Bergh.
It might just have been that De Decker was so much weaker in the semi-final because he was playing a good friend and that he’ll get back to the levels he showed prior to that here. He will probably need to if he is going to have any chance of winning this final. If he is going to win his starting double has to be infinitely better than it was against Van den Bergh. 49% in that regard probably isn’t going to get the job done so that needs to improve. If it does his scoring power could give him a chance if Humphries isn’t quite on it.
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Head to head
These two have met in official senior competition twice in their career and it is 1-1 heading into this match. They have met a lot more in the development setup but on senior events they faced each other in the Players Championship Finals in 2022 when Humphries won 6-4 and then in PC11 last season when De Decker won 6-5. How much we can take from those matches when this is both over set play and a final remains to be seen but De Decker does at least get a familiar foe for his first major final even if it is a daunting one.
Betting
The lines all look about right for this final. I do think Luke Humphries will win this and probably win it well, especially if he starts well, but there is a chance that he has a bit of a comedown from the heights that he hit in the semi-final. I don’t think he’ll need to play as well as he did on Saturday night anyway and the fact he knows what he is facing will help Humphries. I wouldn’t put anyone off taking him to cover 3.5 sets but if Humphries does dominate this match like many expect him to do there could be a better way in.
That comes in the form of the 10/1 on Humphries to hit a 180 in every set. He achieved this feat in both the quarter final and the semi-final and while there might be a set or two more in this final, you would imagine the longer it goes the more in tune his scoring would be. We saw a few times in the semi-final that when he was out of legs he would deliver a maximum to get back in it and he is following his first dart brilliantly. We might be dead after a set but if we get to the third set with the bet still alive, the way Humphries scores we might get a serious run for our money.
Tips
Back L.Humphries to hit a 180 in every set for a 1/10 stake at 11.00 with Bet365
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