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Luke Humphries saw a spirited fight from Michael Smith as he booked his place in the semi-finals of the Grand Slam of Darts with a 16-8 win.
World number one Humphries led 4-0 in the best-of-31 match, but Smith fought back to level the score at 7-7.
However, Humphries won nine of the next 10 matches as the 30-year-old finished off the contest mercilessly against his fellow Englishman.
After that, Humphries said he was considering missing the Players Championship Tour in 2026.
The midweek event includes 34 days of ground competition in places such as Wigan, Leicester, Milton Keynes and the German city of Hildesheim, culminating in a top-performing finals weekend in Minehead in November.
The top-ranked players who have to juggle Thursday night’s Premier League events and the weekend’s European Tour competitions aren’t competing in all 34 events anyway, but Humphreys is considering missing them all together.
“I was kind of thinking about not playing any Players Championships next year, like missing the whole tour, because it’s too crowded,” he said.
“You have to prioritize what you want to do so I can see what I feel.
“It’s 34 weeks and 34 days of darts. I might try it at first and see how it goes, and if it doesn’t go my way, I might 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 strikeout percentage of 44.4%.
He will face Gerwyn Price in the semi-finals after the Welshman recorded a 16-9 win over England’s Ricky Evans.
The remaining quarter-final matches will be played at the WV Active Aldersley Center in Wolverhampton on Saturday.
World champion Luke Littler will face Irishman Josh Rock from Northern Ireland, while German Lucas Fenig will face Dutchman Danny Nobert.
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