Rob Cross will face Chris Dobey in the last 16 of the PDC World Darts Championship following a comfortable 4-1 defeat of Mervyn King on Thursday afternoon.
2018 winner Cross easily won the first set with a 3-0 win that would have worried King who failed to have a single dart at double in a one-sided opener.
‘Voltage’ maintained his high standards in the second set as he took out 110 before cleaning up D16 to claim a sixth consecutive leg and in the process move 2-0 ahead.
King returned from the break having failed to have a leg-dart in the opening two sets and knew that his scoring needed to improve if he was to have any chance of getting the better of his ultra-consistent opponent.
Cross took out 81 with an excellent bullseye to break King’s throw in the first leg of the third set as the crowd failed to get anywhere near as excited for the opening exchanges of this affair compared to the noise they had made for Dirk Van Duijvenbode’s 4-3 win over Ross Smith earlier in the afternoon.
Two-time runner-up King finally sparked into life as he took out 136 to win his first leg of the game at the ninth time of asking.
He followed that up with a wonderful opportunity to level up the set but he missed three darts at D18 before Cross hit D6 to regain control and move into a 3-0 lead.
‘The King’ refused to lie down and accept his fate, however, as he found some form of retribution with an opening leg break in the fourth set as he finally hit D18.
He backed that up with a 15-dart leg and a hold of throw in the fourth leg saw him go into the break trailing 3-1.
That was as good as it would get for the experienced King as Cross responded by claiming the fifth and final set with one break of throw proving enough for the sixth seed.
