Luke Humphries has seen his participation at the 2026 World Darts Championship curtailed by a superb performance from Gian van Veen at Alexandra Palace.
Van Veen, seeded tenth for this year's edition of the Worlds, was superb against 2024 champion Humphries with the Newbury native given little chance and losing in this fixture for the fifth time in a row.
Van Veen's reward for beating Humphries - aside from a semi-final clash with Gary Anderson - is becoming the provisional world number three and, as a result, Dutch number one after Michael van Gerwen's exit from the competition last month.
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The semi-final lineups have now been confirmed, with Van Veen vs Anderson joined by Luke Littler vs Ryan Searle. Littler said after his comprehensive whitewash of Krzysztof Ratajski earlier on Thursday evening that Van Veen's clash with Humphries would 'go all the way' - but the Dutchman would prevail.
Speaking in the immediate aftermath, Van Veen said of beating Humphries: "See this smile? It won't go off after the next 24 hours. I am so over the moon.
"I felt really really good today, I saw on the screen a 105 average, that sums up how I felt. It is undescribable."
Van Veen added: "He (Humphries) is a fantastic player and whenever I play Luke or anyone else plays Luke we all know we need to perform at our best to beat him and to even get a chance to beat him.
"That's what I did today and that's what I prepared for. "Luckily it came out today."
Van Veen now gets a chance to go up against a childhood hero in Anderson. "I am really looking forward to a semi-final against, as many people know, my idol in Gary Anderson."
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