Rob Cross
Robert Stefan Eric Cross is an English professional darts player who competes in Professional Darts Corporation events, where he is ranked world number twenty; he reached a peak ranking of world number two in 2018 and 2019. Nicknamed "Voltage", Cross is a former PDC World Champion, defeating Phil Taylor in the 2018 World Championship final after turning professional less than a year beforehand. He has won three other PDC major titles: the 2019 World Matchplay and the European Championship in 2019 and 2021. Cross has won a total of 21 PDC titles in his professional career, including five World Series of Darts titles.
Before turning professional he reached the last 32 at the UK Open, losing there to Michael van Gerwen, and won four titles on the PDC Challenge Tour in 2016, which earned him his PDC Tour Card.
BDO career
2015
In October 2015, Cross attempted to qualify for the 2016 BDO World Darts Championship, where he was knocked out in the last 64 by Tony Martin. He also competed in the 2015 World Masters, losing to Darius Labanauskas in the last 48.PDC career
2016
Cross competed in the 2016 UK Open as an amateur Rileys qualifier; making it to the last 32 before falling to world number one Michael van Gerwen, who achieved a nine-dart finish in the process. Following this, he competed in the PDC Challenge Tour, winning three of the 16 events and ultimately topping the Order of Merit, consequently earning a Tour Card for the 2017 PDC Pro Tour.2017
At the 2017 UK Open, Cross reached the fifth round before being knocked out by the eventual winner Peter Wright. The following week, he won his first PDC title by defeating Mervyn King 6β5 in the final of the third Players Championship. His first year on the tour continued positively, winning the 12th event with a 6β5 victory over Ian White, who missed five darts for the title.Cross then beat Peter Wright 6β2 in the 19th Players Championship in Dublin and quickly added his 4th Players Championship with a 6β3 win against Adrian Lewis to move into the top 32 for the first time.
Cross reached the final of two events in the 2017 PDC European Tour, the German Darts Grand Prix and the European Darts Trophy, both times losing to Michael van Gerwen. He reached his first premier event final in October at the 2017 European Championship, again losing to van Gerwen.
2018
Cross made his PDC World Darts Championship debut as the 20th seed. He reached the final at the event, beating Phil Taylor 7β2 on New Year's Day 2018, following wins over Seigo Asada, Michael Smith, John Henderson, Dimitri Van den Bergh and Michael van Gerwen. In the final he defeated Taylor, who had previously announced that he would retire after the tournament, 7β2 in sets. He is the only player to have survived match darts in two rounds and then go on to win the World title. Winning the World Championship meant that he finished at number 3 in the PDC Order of Merit and earned automatic qualification for the Premier League Darts">Premier League Darts">Premier League Darts.Cross was tipped by a few pundits to have an off year as they thought that the pressure of being world champion would get to him, despite this he made a good showing on his Premier League debut making it to the semi-finals.
However, he only won one players' championship title in comparison to 2017 where he won 4, he won players' championship 13 by defeating Peter Wright in the final and he won his first World Series event which was the Brisbane Darts Masters by defeating Michael Van Gerwen 10β6 in the final. He had made two previous World Series finals that year: Las Vegas and Shanghai.
2019
In defence of his world title at the 2019 World Championship, Cross lost to Luke Humphries 4β2 in the fourth round.Cross made his 3rd major final and 6th televised final at the 2019 UK Open in Minehead. Cross was the eventual runner-up at the tournament, as he lost to Nathan Aspinall 11β5.
Cross made his second televised final of the year at the 2019 Premier League Darts. After finishing 2nd in the league format, Cross went to the O2 in London for the Play-Offs. He took on James Wade in the semi-final and was successful in victory. He then took on World No. 1, Michael van Gerwen in the final, losing 11β6.
He won the World Matchplay, defeating Michael Smith 18β13 in legs in the final. Cross became only the fourth player to ever win the World Championship and World Matchplay. On his way to the final he beat Chris Dobey 10β3, Krzysztof Ratajski 11β5, Stephen Bunting 16β14 and Daryl Gurney 17β15,.
Cross reached his 4th World Series final at the 2019 Brisbane Darts Masters. He lost to Damon Heta in a last leg decider 8β7.
On 27 October, Cross won his 3rd PDC major title, the 2019 European Championship, beating Gerwyn Price 11β6 in the final.
2020
Cross was eliminated in the second round of the 2020 World Championship, winning only two legs in a 3β0 loss to Kim Huybrechts.At the 2020 [World Series of Darts Finals|World Series of Darts Finals], Cross beat Michael Smith and James Wade en route to the final, before eventually succumbing to Gerwyn Price. Cross and Michael Smith, representing England, reached the final of the World Cup of Darts, where they were defeated 3β0 by Wales.
2021
Cross suffered another early exit at the 2021 World Championship, losing to Dirk van Duijvenbode 3β2 in the second round.Cross won his fourth PDC major title at the 2021 European Championship, beating Michael van Gerwen in the final 11β8 to win the tournament for a second time.
2022
At the 2022 World Championship, Cross started his campaign with a 3β1 win against Raymond van Barneveld. In the next round, he beat Daryl Gurney in a deciding set, finishing the match with a 170 checkout. He was defeated 4β3 by Gary Anderson in the fourth round.Cross was unsuccessful in his defence of the European Championship, losing to James Wade 6β5 in the first round. Cross reached the final of the Players Championship Finals but lost 11β6 to Michael van Gerwen.
2023
At the 2023 World Championship Cross reached the fourth round, losing to Chris Dobey 4β2. He was the runner-up at the Masters where he again lost to Dobey.After seven previous losses in PDC European Tour finals, Cross won his first European Tour title at the 2023 European Darts Grand Prix, defeating Luke Humphries 8β6 in the final. He also won back-to-back titles on the 2023 World Series of Darts, winning the New Zealand Darts Masters and the New South Wales Darts Masters.
At the Grand Slam, Cross was the runner-up, losing the final to Luke Humphries 16β8.
2024
At the 2024 World Championship, Cross whitewashed Thibault Tricole in his second-round match 3β0, won against Jeffrey de Graaf 4β2 in the third round, whitewashed Jonny Clayton 4β0 in the fourth round and came back from four sets down to defeat Chris Dobey 5β4 to reach the semi-finals. He lost his semi-final to Luke Littler 6β2.In May, Cross defeated Luke Humphries 8β6 in the final of the Baltic Sea Darts Open to win his second European Tour title. He also won the US Darts Masters, winning a last-leg decider to beat Gerwyn Price 8β7.
2025
Cross suffered an early exit at the 2025 World Championship, losing 3β1 to Scott Williams in the second round.Cross won his fifth World Series title at the 2025 Dutch Darts Masters, defeating Stephen Bunting 8β5 in the final. It was his first World Series title in Europe. He was victorious in the first Pro Tour event of the year, Players Championship 1, with a 7β3 win over Andrew Gilding in the semi-finals before beating Joe Cullen 8β3 in the final. Cross achieved his first televised nine-dart finish on night five of the 2025 Premier League in his 6β5 semi-final loss to Nathan Aspinall. He finished the league stage of the Premier League in seventh place on 14 points.
2026
At the 2026 World Championship, Cross reached the fourth round before losing 4β2 to defending champion Luke Littler. Cross was also omitted from the 2026 Premier League lineup, which saw him miss out on a place in the tournament for the first time since 2023.Personal life
Cross spent the majority of his early life living in Edenbridge, Kent. He was an electrician before turning professional. His nickname, "Voltage", comes from his former profession.In June 2025, Cross was disqualified from being a company director for five years for failing to pay more than Β£450,000 in taxes. The Insolvency Service found that he had withdrawn over Β£300,000 from his company that should have gone to creditors.
In a 2025 interview, Cross revealed he has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
World Championship results
PDC
- 2018: Winner
- 2019: Fourth round
- 2020: Second round
- 2021: Second round
- 2022: Fourth round
- 2023: Fourth round
- 2024: Semi-finals
- 2025: Second round
- 2026: Fourth round
Career finals
PDC major finals: 11 (4 titles)
| Outcome | No. | Year | Championship | Opponent in the final | Score | Ref. |
| 1. | 2017 | 7β11 | ||||
| Winner | 1. | 2018 | World Championship | 7β2 | ||
| 2. | 2019 | UK Open | 5β11 | |||
| Runner-up | 3. | 2019 | Premier League | 5β11 | ||
| Winner | 2. | 2019 | World Matchplay | 18β13 | ||
| Winner | 3. | 2019 | 11β6 | |||
| Runner-up | 4. | 2020 | World Series of Darts Finals | 9β11 | ||
| Winner | 4. | 2021 | 11β8 | |||
| Runner-up | 5. | 2022 | Players Championship Finals | 6β11 | ||
| Runner-up | 6. | 2023 | Masters | 7β11 | ||
| Runner-up | 7. | 2023 | Grand Slam | 8β16 |
Performance timeline
PDC European Tour| Season | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 |
| 2017 | GDC DNQ | GDM DNQ | GDO QF | EDG QF | GDT QF | EDM DNQ | ADO 2R | EDO QF | DDM 3R | GDG F | IDO 2R | EDT F | - | - |
| 2018 | EDO 3R | GDG QF | GDO SF | ADO QF | EDG 3R | DDM WD | GDT QF | DDO 3R | EDM 2R | GDC QF | DDC DNP | IDO DNP | EDT QF | - |
| 2019 | EDO F | GDC 3R | GDG SF | GDO SF | ADO 3R | EDG 2R | DDM WD | DDO 2R | CDO DNP | ADC DNP | EDM QF | IDO F | GDT 3R | - |
| 2020 | BDC 3R | GDC 3R | EDG QF | IDO 2R | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 2021 | HDT 3R | GDT 2R | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 2022 | IDO 1R | GDC F | GDG 3R | ADO QF | EDO 2R | CDO F | EDG F | DDC 2R | EDM QF | HDT 2R | GDO 3R | BDO 3R | GDT SF | - |
| 2023 | BSD 2R | EDO SF | IDO QF | GDG 2R | ADO 3R | DDC 2R | BDO 3R | CDO SF | EDG W | EDM 3R | GDO 2R | HDT 2R | GDC QF | - |
| 2024 | BDO F | GDG 3R | IDO 3R | EDG SF | ADO 2R | BSD W | DDC DNP | EDO 2R | GDC DNP | FDT DNP | HDT 3R | SDT 3R | CDO WD | - |
| 2025 | BDO 2R | EDT 3R | IDO WD | GDG 3R | ADO DNP | EDG 3R | DDC WD | EDO WD | BSD 2R | FDT 2R | CDO 3R | HDT 3R | SDT QF | GDC 2R |
PDC World Series of Darts
'''PDC Players Championships'''
Nine-dart finishes
| Date | Opponent | Tournament | Method | |
| 6 March 2025 | 2025 Premier League Darts | 3 x T20; 3 x T20; T19, T16, D18 |