Luke Humphries advances to World Grand Prix quarter-finals

World number one Luke Humphries eased into the quarter-finals of the World Grand Prix after a mid-game switch.

Humphries, whose victory at this tournament in 2023 kick-started his ascent to the top of the game, beat Krzysztof Ratajski 3-1 in Leicester.

But it needed an intervention in the middle of the match.

The 30-year-old, who will play Cameron Menzies in the last eight, said: “I went off at the break and said to myself, ‘You must be doing something different because you don’t play like this usually’.

“So I slowed my throw down and I started hitting the trebles. On the practice board I am hitting everything and then I am going out there and not so I needed to change something.”

Menzies admitted he was calling himself “all the names under the sun” as he missed eight match darts on the way to beating Rob Cross.

The Scot got the job done at the ninth attempt to seal a 3-1 victory over the ninth seed, to follow up Monday’s downing of eighth seed Chris Dobey.

Menzies, a notoriously combustible character who celebrated wildly at the end, said: “I have been trying to deal with the adrenaline and stuff.

“I am trying to keep it in. I hate seeing myself acting that way, I don’t like it.

“I wish you could have been in my head at that point. I was calling myself all the names under the sun. I kind of feared the worst after that.”

There was an upset as fourth seed Stephen Bunting was ousted by Dutchman Danny Noppert, who won 3-1, while Gary Anderson cruised past Joe Cullen 3-0.