Rob Cross safely through to last 16 at World Darts Championship

Rob Cross has safety secured passage to the last 16 at the PDC World Darts Championship, ending the run of Jeffrey De Graaf in the process with a 4-2 win.

De Graaf had never won a match in his six previous participations at the World Darts Championship. That was when he was still playing his tournaments on behalf of the Netherlands. However, De Graaf has since become a naturalized Swede, and plays under a Swedish passport. As a Swede, De Graaf did manage to win matches at Alexandra Palace. He successively defeated Ritchie Edhouse (3-2) and Jose de Sousa (3-1) to qualify for the last 32.

But in the third round, Cross simply proved a class too big. The former world champion played a sterling match with an average of 101.32 and a finishing percentage of 52 percent.

De Graaf had one chance to win the first set, but missed his set arrow on the bullseye. Cross won the set 3-2 and went on to win the second set 3-0. De Graaf eventually managed to come back to 2-3 in sets, and even took the lead in the sixth set via a 13-darter.

With an 11-darter and a 13-darter, Cross turned an 0-1 deficit into a 2-1 lead and 'Voltage' only needed one more leg to win. That needed leg followed immediately after with a 14-darter. The Englishman will face the winner of the match between Jonny Clayton and Krzysztof Ratajski in the fourth round.