- Cross fought back from four-set deficit to win quarter-final 5-4
- 2018 champion will play teenager Luke Littler in semi-final
In the 46-year history of world championship darts, no player had ever overturned a 4-0 deficit in sets to win the match. But as Rob Cross put it after pulling off one of the greatest comebacks in the sport: “I love being different.” And in beating Chris Dobey 5-4 to set up a sensational semi-final against the teenager Luke Littler, Cross channelled the same nerveless audacity and thrumming momentum that took him to the title as an unfancied debutant in 2018.
Dobey is the Masters champion, a coming force in the sport, a 180-hitting machine, one of the outstanding players at this year’s tournament. But as Cross slowly chipped away at his lead, you could spot the sands shifting under him a little. For all his brashness and swagger, there is an occasional fragility to him that surfaces under the highest pressure. The left-hand side of the board – double-16 and double-eight – began to fail him. The gaze began to wander a little, and when that happens so does the focus. For the first time, Dobey was no longer contemplating victory but defeat.