PDC World Darts Championship Preview - Semi-Finals

The PDC World Darts Championship final is so close. Only two of the four players remaining will remain in the competition when 2018 dawns, with the chance to become the 25th PDC world champion. Two of them have won it before. Michael van Gerwen holds the title now. Phil Taylor has 14 of them - and two more from his BDO days. The other two, Jamie Lewis and Rob Cross, could not be more different. Lewis scraped his way into the tournament to start with, while Cross was not even a professional this time last year. Will the final be a clash between the two greats, a meeting of the young guns, or a mix of the two? The past, present and future of darts all come head-to-head in what should be an Ally Pally classic.

Jamie Lewis was born two months before Phil Taylor picked up his second world title. When the Welshman became the WDF World Cup youth champion, Taylor had picked up 14 world titles. Lewis' debut appearance at the Ally Pally ended in the preliminary round; that tournament was won by Taylor, his 16th. And, so far, his last. Now the two are equals, both in with a chance of a final appearance that would mean so much to them for different reasons. Only one player was able to win their quarter-final without being dragged into a long slog, and that was the unseeded player who was the last person to qualify for the World Championship. Lewis' 5-0 demolition job on Demolition Man Darren Webster was a masterclass in staying cool and taking chances. Though Webster was inconsistent, Lewis deserves credit for not being the same. Only two players averaged more than his 101.26. One of that pair was Phil Taylor. An off-par Gary Anderson was kept at arm's length, with Taylor's only regret that the tie wasn't rounded up once he went 4-1 up. The fairytale finale is still on. Even the Power himself wasn't sure it would happen, yet a monumental farewell against Michael van Gerwen is still on the cards. Even the cocksure 16-time world champion won't discount Lewis' chances, however. Taylor is the favourite, obviously. Lewis has been known to put in nervy performances in the past, and it is something Taylor can exploit. Yet Peter Wright was burned by the fireball. Whoever wins this, the story is simply mouth-watering.

When Michael van Gerwen played Rob Cross in the 2016 UK Open, the latter was a Riley's qualifier, an amateur among professionals. His biggest scalp in Minehead was that of Wes Newton. Barry Lynn, another amateur, stunned Gary Anderson to take the headlines. The rest of the focus was on van Gerwen, who threw 18 consecutive perfect darts against Cross and went on to take the title. The Hastings thrower went under the radar. He mused that he was totally comfortable on the big stage. So it would prove. Cross is no amateur now. He is a World Championship semi-finalist, a Premier League debutant, and will be in the Order of Merit top ten when 2018 comes around. Van Gerwen takes on not a young hopeful, but the man dubbed Phil Taylor's successor by the man himself.
Cross has had to ride his luck on his way to the semi-finals. It helps that Daryl Gurney and Mensur Suljovic were taken care of before he could face them, but Michael Smith and Dimitri van den Bergh offered enough problems. Smith had two match darts before Cross found the all-important double. Had van den Bergh struck double 16 for that incredible 132 checkout, the young Belgian could have taken Cross' spot in the final four. But the mark of a great player is to grasp any opportunity that comes their way. Cross could have crumbled when van den Bergh mounted his remarkable comeback, but he held his nerve. That ice-cool demeanour will help Voltage in what is brand new territory.
Michael van Gerwen has been here, done that, and got the t-shirt. He has taken the world of darts by storm in the past couple of years, but craves world titles. Any season that does not conclude with victory at the Ally Pally is a write-off. His Masters, Premier League, Players Championship, Grand Slam and European Championship titles - the last of which was won thanks to a win over Cross - all pale in comparison to The Big One. Cross has been run close, but so has van Gerwen in his past couple of games. Raymond van Barneveld, like Gerwyn Price, saw the chance to break Mighty Mike but couldn't take it. Cross will be determined to strike, should the Dutchman fail to reach his normal stratospheric standard. Van Gerwen vs Taylor would be an incredible final. But victory here would seal Rob Cross' 2017 season as the most remarkable debut year the PDC has ever seen.