Van Gerwen should outclass gritty Geordie Ryan Joyce

Quarter-finals
Sky Sports Arena, 7pm Saturday

Michael van Gerwen v Ryan Joyce

Head-to-head: Van Gerwen leads 1-0

Ryan Joyce’s remarkable purge of the seeds at Alexandra Palace should come to an end on Saturday evening when he runs into the best of the lot, Michael van Gerwen.

The Geordie has shown true grit in taking the scalps of Simon Whitlock, Alan Norris and James Wade but he isn’t anywhere near consistent enough to trouble the Dutch world number one.

Joyce’s best average of the tournament so far is 90.4 while Van Gerwen’s worst is 101.2.

A 5-0 Van Gerwen victory is worth considering at 13-10 although it’s probably short enough given that he hasn't had a whitewash yet.

Van Gerwen did produce a sizzling 108 average in beating Adrian Lewis 4-1 in the previous round although that was the type of game he will always be bang up for. Will playing Ryan ‘Relentless’ Joyce in the last eight get his juices flowing quite as briskly?

The two-time world champion is easing through the gears nicely and should simply have too much scoring power for his opponent. Take Van Gerwen to get the job done in 23 legs or less.

Recommendation
Under 23.5 legs
2pts 10-11 Hills

L Humphries v M Smith

H2H: Smith leads 2-0

Luke Humphries stunned defending champion Rob Cross in round four and he is now a 5-2 chance to get past Michael Smith and book his place in the semi-finals.

Humphries was a 1,000-1 shot before a dart was thrown and is now just a 25-1 poke to lift the biggest crown in darts.

This ought to be as far as he gets but he's raised plenty of eyebrows already and he could test 4-11 favourite Smith.

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