Darts results: Rob Cross hits a nine-darter but James Wade wins the fourth Players Championship title of the PDC Summer Series

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Voltage's brilliance sealed the first perfect leg since 'normal' darts returned for the five-day run of tournaments at the Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes and helped him claim a 7-2 semi-final triumph over Mensur Suljovic in which he averaged a stunning 110.1.

Despite the four-month drought without a ranking event, this was incredibly the 14th nine-darter on the PDC circuit this year although one of those includes Luke Woodhouse's efforts from his kitchen during the Home Tour.

Cross, however, couldn't repeat the magic in his first final of the year as Wade broke his title duck for 2020 with the 37th of his illustrious PDC career.

After the first four legs were shared, the eight-time major winner produced checkouts of 108 and 156 to break Cross' throw twice en route to a 6-2 lead while he also took the next two without reply to seal a commanding 8-2 triumph.

The Machine averaged 95.8 compared to his opponent's 95.7 and that was his lowest of sparkling day which also saw him defeat Ian White 7-4, Michael Smith 6-0 and Nathan Aspinall 6-4 with averages of 103.2, 98 and 102.9 respectively.

Wade told www.pdc.tv: "It's been a really good day and I enjoyed it. It's been up and down for the last three days but I think in my last four games I played really well and my finishing has been good all day.

"It's nice to get back into it and go to work. It's been wonderful spending time with my family but I knew I had to come back to work and today is why we do it - it's a lovely feeling. I know I can win and it's not a new thing for me. There's some tremendous players and I'm one of the fortunate ones to still be about after 20 years of playing.

"I've been doing it for a long time but I'm still keen, I can still win and make the other younger players work."

His semi-final victim, White, had beaten him in the Players Championship Eight final before lockdown and Diamond may have been expected to edge it having earlier seen off Glen Durrant and Krzysztof Ratajski.

Wade's other triumphs came against Mike van Duivenbode (6-0), Harald Leitinger (6-3) and Jeffrey de Zwaan (6-3) and his form couldn't be better timed ahead of the World Matchplay, which begins next weekend.

As for Cross, he will also be filled with renewed confidence ahead of his World Matchplay defence despite falling short in his bid to win a 10th PDC title and first since last year's European Championship having got there with a string of encouraging performances.

Prior to the nine-darter, the former world champion edged out Jamie Hughes 6-5 thanks to an average of 101.5 while he also held his nerve in two other last-leg deciders against Callan Rydz and Danny Noppert following easier wins over Lisa Ashton (6-2) and Jitse Van der Wal (6-0).

Meanwhile Michael van Gerwen, who had won two of the opening three events of the Summer Series, suffered a shock first-round exit to Joe Murnan while world champion Peter Wright suffered a 6-4 defeat to Smith in the last 16.

Daryl Gurney enjoyed another solid day as he followed up Friday's semi-final run with averages of 106 against Mervyn King (6-5) and 107.6 against Devon Peterson (6-4) to venture into the quarters, where he lost to Suljovic.

Gerwyn Price was shocked 6-5 in the last 32 by rising star Callan Rydz, who also averaged 105 in a 6-3 victory over Ryan Searle, while Ryan Meikle recorded the highest of the day with a 111.3 in a 6-0 demolition of Joe Cullen.

The overall tournament average was 93.8, which was a record since the DartConnect scoring system began being used on the PDC circuit, with 45 ton-plus averages being achieved in 127 games. It would have been 128 games but Justin Pipe withdrew due to an arm injury.

In terms of the World Matchplay qualification race, which ends after Sunday's final event, there weren't any big moves from those looking to climb into the top 16 on the ProTour Order of Merit. But with £75,000 still left to play for, including one more top prize of £10,000, at least 20 players still harbour outside dreams of returning to the Marshall Arena for the sport's second biggest major.

All of the top 16 players on PDC Order of Merit are now safe of being seeded after world number 17 Stephen Bunting failed to reach the semi-finals on Saturday but there could be some movement in terms of what those seedings are.

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PDC Summer Series Day Four Results (Players Championship 12)

• Last 16 onwards. For all the Players Championship NINE results and detailed stats, head to Dart Connect (tv.dartconnect.com/events/pdc)

Last 16

• Rob Cross 6-5 Callan Rydz
• Jamie Hughes 6-1 Jason Lowe
• Mensur Suljovic 6-5 Kai Fan Leung
• Daryl Gurney 6-4 Robert Thornton
• Michael Smith 6-4 Peter Wright
• James Wade 6-4 Nathan Aspinall
• Krzysztof Ratajski 6-3 Jose De Sousa
• Ian White 6-4 Glen Durrant

Quarter-Finals

• Rob Cross 6-5 Jamie Hughes
• Mensur Suljovic 6-4 Daryl Gurney
• James Wade 6-0 Michael Smith
• Ian White 6-1 Krzysztof Ratajski

Semi-Finals

• Rob Cross 7-2 Mensur Suljovic
• James Wade 7-4 Ian White

Final

• James Wade 8-2 Rob Cross

Related Darts Content

• Chris Hammer's Summer Series guide
• 2020 World Matchplay draw and schedule
• 2020 Premier League venues & dates
• 2020 PDC event calendar & results
• 2020 World Darts Championship results
• 2019 PDC event results
• Sky Bet's darts odds

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