World Matchplay 2024 - Semi-Finals and Final
Semi-Finals
In the semi-finals of the World Matchplay stood the three players ranked 1 - 3 in the Order of Merit - and by this the seeds 1 - 3 of the tournament - and one non seeded player.
In the first semi-final the number 1 of the Order of Merit and the number 1 seed Luke Humphries played against the not seeded James Wade who had only qualified just and last minute for the tournament. By reaching the semi-finale Wade proved he qualified rightly, it was a long time one had seen him so strong and convincing. On the other side it was no surprise that Luke Humphries was the favourite to win the tournament.
For both players the semi-final to be sure was no easy match. They know each other quite well, they are friends and practiced together to prepare for the tournament. The format was now best of 33 -not a problem for players with such a lot of experience.
When you now look back on the statistics you will see that Wade was more consistent throughout the match with an average all the time of over 100 while Humphries average went up and down with only around 94.11 at the time when Wade drew 4:4.
But I'll start at the beginning. Humphries had one of his by now almost typical lightning starts into the match and got 2:0 into the lead. But than Wade settled as well and both went with 3:2 in the first break with two 180s each. Similar evenly matched was the second mini-session in which the lead for a short while switched to Wade but Humphries drew 5:5 before the break. This was the phase of Humphries lowest average in the match and he was not really clinical on his doubles either. Till the third break the match stayed as balanced but then Humphries got stronger and regained the lead. After that Humphries was the better player for the rest of the match who extended the lead more and more. One of the reasons was that Wade missed some doubles and Humphries ruthlessly used his chances. Highlight was a 156 finish of Humphries to lead 14:9.
Humphries progressed with a 17:10 win into his first World Matchplay final. Might be the result was measured by Wade's part in the match too high but Humphries was the deserved winner.
In the second semi-final the numbers 2 and 3 of the World clashed - Michael van Gerwen and Michael Smith who both before the tournament where not among the top favourites to win. Both had not played consistently great recently but both had fared really well in the tournament so far. The second semi-final turned out to be the not so good one of the two.
Especially Smith took some time to settle into the match and to hit his doubles - before the first break he was 1:4 behind and had a hitting rate on the doubles of 10 percent. It didn't help much that he scored high.It got better in the second session and Smith managed to draw 5:5. But after the second break van Gerwen began to dominate the match and stayed in the lead most of the time though Smith got close from time to time and van Gerwen experienced some double-trouble. Smith didn't use this chances consequently - perhaps he just couldn't. As it looked with his last energy reserves Smith managed to draw 12:12 - after that he run out of steem completely and was no longer able to offer any resistance. He went down 12:17 to van Gerwen. Might be it was something like a typical Michael Smith match who tends to give in early instead to get his teeth into a match, van Gerwen had not been unbeatable in this.
Final
In the final of the World Matchplay the number 1 of the World Luke Humphries and the number 3 of the World Michael van Gerwen (he slided down to place three before the semi-finals) met. Both players had played a good tournament which one not necessarily had awaited from van Gerwen. Probably Humphries had to work harder to get into the final then van Gerwen and so far with the exception of the semi-final Humphries hadn't really sparkled. He went into the match as favourite, he had averaged over 100 in all his matches (with an over 108 average in his first match the highest average of the tournament so far) and he had won his last seven games against the Dutchman. In van Gerwn's favour was that he had won this tournament already and that he is really good in improving throughout a tournament. So one hoped for a thrilling match. Not even the commentators were in agreement about the possible winner. Michael van Gerwen probably was convinced that he would win it while Humphries probably more hoped he could win it.
And so it was the Dutchman who had the better start and with conviction was 3:2 in the lead before the first break. But from the break Humphries returned reassured and with belief and won four of the five legs of the session. His average improved as well. After Humphries had got the lead he never looked back. Gerwen often got very close and the lead often got extremly narrow. In the final phase of the match - in which van Gerwen just missed to draw 16:16 and had some trouble to hit his doubles - it looked both players finally played with freedom and started to sparkle. With a 100 checkout with 20, tops, tops for the 18:15 win Humphries relegated a very disappointed looking van Gerwen to second place and won his first World Matchplay title.