Two former World Champions will battle it out for a spot in the Quarter-Finals of the World Matchplay on Wednesday night, but it’s two World Champions who haven’t tasted success on a major stage for a long while.
Despite having seven major titles to his name (excluding the World Cup), Gerwyn Price hasn’t won a televised major in almost four years at the World Series of Darts Finals.
If you’re talking ranking titles, you have to go back even further to the 2021 Grand Slam, back when Gerwyn Price was the number one ranked player in the World. It is a long drawn out wait for someone so often in the Top 10, having not even reached a major ranking Final since the end of 2023, losing in 4 consecutive Semi-Finals over the last eight months.
Rob Cross on the other hand has four major titles to his name, but that includes two biggest two of the lot, winning the World Championship in 2018 and the World Matchplay in 2019, along with a couple of titles at the European Championship.
However, is has been an exactly one month longer wait for Voltage to get his hands on another major ranking title, going back to the 2021 edition of the European Championship.
He has been in three finals since himself, but has come up incredibly dry of late, reaching just one Quarter-Final on the major stage since November 2024!
The pair both look to make strides at the World Matchplay this week, with their draw opening up after the defeat of Luke Humphries by Cameron Menzies on Monday.
Gerwyn Price somewhat squeezed through his opening game against Martin Schindler after making the most of a lot of missed opportunities by the nervous German, while Rob Cross rumped Noppert 10-3. While the pair have met as recently as last July, their last meeting at a major event comes back in 2020, with the Iceman downing Rob Cross 11-9 in the Final of the World Series of Darts Finals, revenge for Cross beating the Welshman 11-6 in the European Championship Final the previous year.
Their only other major meeting came in the group stage of the Champions League in 2019, Price taking that one 10-5.
Matchups between the pair have been sparse since Cross got cut from the Premier League lineup, but both players will certainly be looking at their draw with a lot of optimism!
Images: T Lanning / PDC
