Michael van Gerwen booked his place in the final of the Masters last night, but he certainly didn't have things all his own way during his victory over Luke Humphries.
It would be a thrilling contest between the pair, one that would go all the way to a deciding leg. That 19th leg only came after Humphries missed five consecutive match darts to hand the Dutchman a lifeline in the competition.
𝗗𝗘𝗖𝗜𝗗𝗘𝗥!
THE. DRAMA. 🤯
Luke Humphries misses FIVE match darts and Van Gerwen takes us to a 19th and final leg!
MvG with the darts... pic.twitter.com/0xHzw48bEq— PDC Darts (@OfficialPDC) January 29, 2022
Van Gerwen would ultimately win the final leg in a fairly comfortable fashion, although his opponent was clearly unhappy after the match finished.
The pair would exchange words on the stage, with the Englishman seemingly not pleased with something that had taken place during the match.
MVG GIVES LUKE HUMP!
Words exchanged between Van Gerwen and Humphries.
Hump appeared to be unhappy with something said on stage by MVG just before losing 10-9 in a deciding leg.#darts @OfficialPDC pic.twitter.com/s866wfFhK5— O C H E ! (@Oche180) January 29, 2022
Speaking to Live Darts after his win, van Gerwen cleared up what was said.
He revealed that Humphries was unhappy that the 32-year old had coughed in the middle of one of his visits, something van Gerwen didn't seem to give too much attention to.
"𝙃𝙚 𝙨𝙖𝙞𝙙 '𝙬𝙝𝙮 𝙙𝙞𝙙 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙘𝙤𝙪𝙜𝙝?' 𝙄 𝙘𝙤𝙪𝙜𝙝𝙚𝙙 𝙤𝙣𝙘𝙚 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙝𝙚 𝙬𝙖𝙨 200 𝙥𝙤𝙞𝙣𝙩𝙨 𝙗𝙚𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙙."@MvG180 on his post-match exchange with Luke Humphries 👀🗣️
Click here full interview 👇— Live Darts (@livedarts) January 30, 2022
He said 'why did you cough'.
Yeah I coughed once, but he was 200 points behind. Sorry.
Only 200...
Not exactly sympathetic.
Humphries soon took to social media himself to discuss the incident, saying van Gerwen's comments only proved to back up his version of events.
So what I said was right then? 😂 he did cough? I didn’t make a big deal of it I just looked back disappointed and confused why he did.. just to clear up all the people that are saying I said it cus I lost… 👍🏻 he has told you ‘HE DID’ butdoesn’t matter because I was 200 behind🙈 https://t.co/LmjZ84H8yl
— Luke Humphries (@lukeh180) January 30, 2022
Van Gerwen has not been shy towards confrontation on stage down through the years, although this is a relatively minor incident.
The three-time world champion is currently looking to bounce back from a disappointing year in 2021, one that concluded with his having to withdraw in the middle of the World Championships after a positive covid diagnosis which ruled him out of the tournament.
He will now face Joe Cullen in the quarter-final, hoping to continue his quest to win this tournament for a sixth time.
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