Luke Humphries continued his monstrous run of form as he added another major trophy to his ever-growing list of accomplishments, winning his first World Matchplay title in a classic final against Michael Van Gerwen.
After cruising past Ricardo Pietreczko in the first round, and then overcoming Stephen Bunting in the last 16, Humphries avenged his UK Open Final loss by beating Dimitri Van den Bergh 16-10 to reach the semi final.
A topsy turvy affair against James Wade saw Humphries win and reach his maiden Matchplay final, where in recent times, the World Number 1 hasn't fared all too well.
And things looked too close to call in the beginning of Sunday night's final. Van Gerwen snatched a break in the opening session to lead 2-3 at the first interval, before some superb finishing from Humphries saw him go into the next break ahead of 6-4.
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Humphries, a fantastic momentum player, proceeded to punish a lacklustre Van Gerwen for the next few legs, averaging well over a ton to keep ahold of his throw and at times open up a three leg advantage over the famed Dutchman.
But Van Gerwen's own surge of form looked to kick in late in the match, capturing a vital break of throw and levelling the match at 16-16 in the race to 18.
Humphries held his throw to make it 17-16, and some crucial missed darts at Double 16 and Double 18 gave Humphries a chance to win if he could checkout 100 from three darts.
After hitting a single dart at 20, Cool Hand opted for the risky double-double at tops, barely squeezing his darts into a tight corner of D20 to checkout, win, and make history as the next holder of the Phil Taylor Trophy!
Avenging his last three major losses en-route to the final (Wade at the European Championship, Bunting at the Masters, VDB at the UK Open), before beating the World Number 2 in the final, was Humphries campaign one of the best we've ever seen?
By Jaspar Shepherdson
(@jasparshepmedia on X/Twitter and Instagram)
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