"Michael van Gerwen's not as dangerous as he was" - Luke Humphries heads to last eight of World Series Finals with no fear

Luke Humphries remains on course for a first title victory at the World Series of Darts Finals. Last year's losing semi-finalist defeated Damon Heta 6-5 in the second round and now gets to take on home crowd favourite Michael van Gerwen in Amsterdam.

Humphries and Heta made it a particularly exciting match in which both men averaged well over 100. In the end, an eleventh and decisive leg had to provide the decision and it fell in favour of the reigning world champion. “Damon said he wanted a bit of fight from me and that's what I gave him,” said the world number one afterwards. “Sometimes the emotion comes out of me and he fired me up tonight. It was a fantastic game of darts and to hit a ten-dart leg under pressure in the decider shows the resolve I’ve got."

As mentioned, Humphries will take on Michael van Gerwen in the quarterfinals this Sunday afternoon. "I'm not going to have the crowd on my side like I've had the last two nights," 'Cool Hand Luke' admits knowingly. "It's not something that will bother me. I'll try and just do my own thing."

With Humphries seemingly having the mental advantage over past battle between the two darting superstars, the world champion will begin as favourite. "I don't fear anybody. I don't fear Michael. You know, a lot of people sometimes play the player but I never, regardless of who I'm playing," Humphries says. "If you're someone that's not playing Michael on the regular, you might fear the name and I probably would have done four or five years ago, when he was on his peak. But you know, he's not as dangerous as he was then many years ago. That's no disrespect, he just isn't. The stats would back that up."

The winner of the duel between Humphries and Van Gerwen will take on the winner of the match between Luke Littler and Chris Dobey on Sunday night in the semifinals.