Luke Humphries saw off a spirited fightback from Michael Smith as he booked his place in the semi-finals of the Grand Slam of Darts with a 16-8 victory.
World number one Humphries raced into a 4-0 lead in the best of 31-leg match but Smith battled back to level it at 7-7 all.
However, Humphries won nine of the next 10 legs as the 30-year-old ruthlessly closed out the contest against his fellow Englishman.
Afterwards, Humphries said he he is considering giving the Players Championship tour a miss in 2026.
The midweek event involves 34 days of floor competitions in places like Wigan, Leicester, Milton Keynes and German town Hildesheim, culiminating in a finals weekend for the best performing players at Minehead in November.
The top-ranked players who have to juggle Thursday night Premier League events and weekend European Tour competitions do not compete in all 34 events anyway, but Humphries is considering missing it all together.
“I’ve kind of been thinking about not playing any Players Championship next year, like giving the whole tour a miss, because it’s so busy,” he said.
“You have to prioritise what you want to do so I’ll see how I feel.
“It’s 34 weeks, 34 days of darts. I might just give it a go at the start and see how it goes and if it doesn’t go my way then maybe just give it a miss and just focus on everything else.”
Humphries, the 2023 Grand Slam champion, averaged an impressive 104.98 against Smith with a checkout percentage of 44.4%
He will face Gerwyn Price in the last four after the Welshman chalked up a 16-9 win over England’s Ricky Evans.
The remaining two quarter-finals at the WV Active Aldersley centre in Wolverhampton take place on Saturday.
World champion Luke Littler faces Northern Ireland’s Josh Rock while Germany’s Lukas Wenig takes on Dutchman Danny Noppert.
