It is semi-final night at the World Grand Prix on Saturday with two juicy looking matches taking place inside the Mattioli Arena in Leicester on an evening where we will find out which two men will compete in the final on Sunday.
We have the two best players in the world who have made it through to the last four and they are joined by a couple of men who know all about winning a TV tournament so we should be in for an absolutely cracking night of darts.
Luke Humphries vs Danny Noppert
The opening semi-final sees the world number one Luke Humphries, winner here two years ago and the finalist last year, going up against the former UK Open champion Danny Noppert who is competing in the last four of this event for a second time.
Humphries demolished the field in the first two rounds of the competition where his starting double was as immaculate as anything we have seen in the tournament for a good while. That doubling wasn’t quite as good in the quarter final win over Cameron Menzies but then he scored the best he has done all competition against the Scot so over the longer format if the two can come together he will be very tough to beat. Noppert has been extremely efficient in this tournament. He has seen off some big names too with Stephen Bunting and Gary Anderson his latest two victims and in both of those matches he has scored well and his finishing has been excellent and if he can start legs strongly he has enough in his artillery to get the job done here. I think Humphries will have just too much over this distance but I certainly expect Noppert to be competitive but I can’t really find a bet or a price that I like the look of so I’ll leave this opening game alone.
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Luke Littler vs Jonny Clayton
The second semi-final looks an incredibly tasty affair on paper as the world champion Luke Littler looks to reach the final of the competition for the first time when he meets the former winner of the event in Jonny Clayton over what should be a cracking nine sets of darts.
Littler was on cruise control in the opening two rounds of the competition when he came through a belting contest against Gian van Veen in the first round and then the winner last year Mike De Decker in the second but he had to do a Houdini act in the quarter final when he trailed Gerwyn Price 2-0 and had to survive match darts before coming through 3-2 to book his spot in this semi-final. Clayton has breezed into the last four too but you could argue that his path hasn’t been as tough with Luke Woodhouse and Dirk van Duijvenbode well below their best in the last two rounds. This will be tougher for Clayton but he knows he can beat Littler on a TV stage having done it at The Masters at the beginning of the year. I’m hoping that Clayton can win this one because if you followed me on Twitter earlier in the week I put Clayton up each way so I’m effectively on him at 11/1 to win this match. I think he’s a much better chance than that so I don’t need to get involved again but there is a bet I like for this semi-final and it is for Luke Littler to hit more than 9.5 180s. He hit 10 of them in five sets against Gerwyn Price and you would imagine that he will have to play a couple more sets here at the very least so there will be even longer to get those 180s. Littler isn’t starting off on tops which means he has an extra scoring visit per leg open to him and in a match which should have upwards of 25 legs, I think it is well within range for Littler to make it into double figures for his 180 count.
Tips
Back L.Littler – Over 9.5 180s for a 3/10 stake at 2.10 with Paddy Power
