In the first quarter-final, things were level for a while. When the score reached 10-10 interval, Rock thought he was in safe with a break of throw and the lead. At 15-12, Rock was one leg away from winning, however Wade won his own leg, broke his opponent's and repeated that feat to win the match 16-15.
In the second quarterfinal, Anderson took a second break lead at 8-4, which then evaporated quickly to 8-8. Humphries in turn ran ahead to 12-9, saw Anderson come back and alongside to 14-13 and then won the last three legs in a row for a 16-14 victory. With an average of 103.56 and 59 per cent on checkouts, Humphries is not out of place in the last four. Wade threw 95.56 and was not hampered by his 64 per cent checkout rate.
Next quarter-finals to come
The battle continues in Wolverhampton on Saturday night at 20.10 with the encounter between American Stowe Buntz and Englishman Stephen Bunting. They first met in the group stage of this same tournament and six days ago when Buntz won 5-3.
No earlier than 8.30pm GMT, Damon Heta will start against Rob Cross in the fourth quarter-final. In that match, Cross is the favourite. He won four of the five previous duels between them and is four spots higher in the world rankings.