Peter Wright's woes continue with early exit at Nordic Darts Masters as Michael Smith, Rob Cross & Luke Humphries impress

The quarter-final lineup at the 2024 Nordic Darts Masters is now complete. Joining Dimitri Van den Bergh, Nathan Aspinall, Gerwyn Price and Stephen Bunting, the quartet of Johan Engstrom, Michael Smith, Rob Cross and Luke Humphries have also ensured a Saturday return.

Peter Wright has not been in the best form of late and sadly for the Scotsman, his woes continued this Friday night as the two-time former world champion was left stunned by Nordic and Baltic qualifier, Johan Engstrom. In a tight contest, the tie went all the way to an 11th and deciding leg. In the final leg, it was Engstrom that had the darts and the qualifier made that advantage count too, sealing the win in 13 darts for his third successive leg and a place in the quarter-finals.

Michael Smith started like a house on fire in the next match. Racing into an early 2-0 lead with legs of 11 and 12. Despite a scrappier third leg seeing the former world champion miss six darts at double, allowing Paavo Myller to get himself on the board, Smith was clearly the better of the two players. Reeling off the next four legs unanswered, Smith sealed the 6-1 win averaging 102.56, just short of 25 points higher than his opponent.

If Smith's performance was good, Rob Cross' was absolutely sensational in his last 16 match. The winner of the most recent World Series of Darts tournament at the US Darts Masters in New York last time out, continued his excellent form with an average of 108.19. Despite his brilliance however, Voltage was made to work for his win as a very game Jeffrey de Graaf gave almost as good as he got, averaging 102.25 himself. When the Dutch/Swede got his big chance in leg 10 however, De Graaf was unable to nail the bull or mop up the remaining 25 after Cross missed three clear darts for the match, allowing the former world champion to return again and this time the Englishman made no mistake, nailing double 8 for the 6-4 win.

Rounding out the night, the reigning world champion and current world number one Luke Humphries eased his way into the last 8. 'Cool Hand Luke' whitewashed Benjamin Drue Reus 6-0, averaging a touch over the hundred mark and firing a pair of maximums in the process.