The semi-finals of the World Grand Prix darts tournament take place on Saturday evening when both matches are played out over the new, extended format inside the Mattioli Arena in Leicester with spots in the final on the line.
The semi-finals used to be the best of seven sets but they have increased this year to the best of nine so five is the required number for the four men who are going to battle it out for a shot at major glory on Sunday evening.
Mike De Decker vs Dimitri Van den Bergh
The opening semi-final of the tournament will see the two leading Belgian players battling it out when Mike De Decker looks for a place in a first TV final when he meets the man he could very well be partnering at the World Cup next year in Dimitri Van den Bergh.
This is without doubt the biggest night in the career of De Decker, who has reached the last four of a televised tournament for the first time and will be hoping to keep going and have a shot at glory on Sunday evening. Van den Bergh has already landed one TV event this season and will be looking for a chance to play for another here. He is well versed in the long set format having gone deep in the World Championship in the past. He has also won the World Matchplay so playing a lot of legs in one night is nothing new for the Belgian number one. De Decker has probably played the best of these two men overall but when Van den Bergh has played his better stuff he has looked in top form. I understand why De Decker is a favourite because of that and it might be that he gets out to the better start but Van den Bergh has got better the longer every match has gone on this week and you would think that De Decker could struggle to get over the finish line on a night as big as this so I wouldn’t be surprised if Van den Bergh reels him in. If De Decker doesn’t get off to a good start it is hard to see him winning this anyway so I can’t ignore the odds against on a Van den Bergh win here.
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Luke Humphries vs Ryan Joyce
The second semi-final will see the world number one and defending champion Luke Humphries looking to make it through to successive World Grand Prix finals when he takes on Ryan Joyce who will be aiming for a spot in a maiden televised final.
Humphries has lived something of a charmed life this week having survived a match dart in the first round and darts to go 2-1 down in the quarter final but he won’t worry about that now. He will know if he is going to win this title for a second year in a row he will need to improve over the weekend but at the same time he will know he has all that improvement in him. Joyce will hope it doesn’t come here though because he is having the best week of his life and he will want to extend that into a first major final. Joyce is going to need to be clinical on the starting and finishing double if he is going to win this match but he has generally hit the doubles well this week which bodes well. Humphries was sloppy on Friday night in the quarter final and I’m hoping he is so again here because I’m effectively on Joyce at 75/1 to win this match having taken him at 150/1 before a dart was thrown. I don’t need to get involved in this match any more than that.
Tips
Back D.Van den Bergh to beat M.De Decker for a 3/10 stake at 2.20 with Boylesports
Back him here:
