Luke Humphries defeated Dimitri Van den Bergh last night to reach the semi-finals of the World Matchplay.
Humphries produced his third consecutive ton-topping average of the tournament and took the final five legs to win 16-10.
It was a rematch of their controversial UK Open final from earlier this year, where Van den Bergh lifted the trophy after reducing the match to a standstill – a tactic regularly employed by the Belgian.
The match was played in good spirits for the most part, but the World Champion revealed Van den Bergh made a mistake which fired him up late on.
Luke Humphries critical of Van den Bergh’s actions at World Matchplay
During the 22nd leg, the Belgian hit a 180 and rolled his shoulders in celebration.
An undeterred Humphries immediately checked out 106 and imitated the action and speaking to Darts Now, the World Champion said his opponent made a mistake.
He said: “When Dimitri hit the second 180 and did the shoulder roll I thought, ‘that’s such an unnatural reaction.’
“Usually you’d give it a ‘come on’ and he was sorta giving it a bit of swag and I thought ‘if this goes I’m giving it back to him’ to be honest.
“I was pretty revved up after that and maybe that could’ve been the mistake he made because if he didn’t do that I might’ve just felt a little flat and that 106 doesn’t go and then you don’t see the great things that happened after.”
He added: “When people do things like that it revs me up and the last five legs after that I was fantastic so maybe that was his mistake in the game.”
Humphries the man to beat in Blackpool
The World Number One has looked imperious so far this week.
He has averaged in three figures in every match and has never looked in danger of losing.
James Wade awaits him in the final four after he reached his ninth World Matchplay semi-final after beating Ross Smith.
Wade averaged in three figures himself last night and dumped ‘Cool Hand’ out of the European Championship last year.
Humphries will undoubtedly be a big favourite though and it’s hard to see his unstoppable form brought to an end by ‘The Machine’.
If Wade can replicate his scoring form from his quarterfinal clash, however, this could still be a tricky tie for the 29-year-old.