Former world champion Rob Cross (20/1 – Grand Slam of Darts Outright) believes he is starting to find his form as he prepares to play in this week’s Grand Slam of Darts in Wolverhampton.
An all-star cast will take to the oche this week, with five-time world champion Raymond van Barneveld, who will make his first appearance in Wolverhampton since 2018, playing his first tournament since coming out of retirement.
However, Dimitri Van den Bergh has been ruled out of the tournament after testing positive for Covid-19 and the Belgian is replaced by Chris Dobey, who is in Group D alongside Stephen Bunting, Ryan Joyce and Rowby-John Rodriguez.
The likes of Gerwyn Price, Jonny Clayton, Mervyn King, Peter Wright (10/1 – Outright Winner), Jose de Sousa, Michael van Gerwen (7/2) and Gary Anderson are all preparing themselves for one of the biggest tournaments of the year.
Englishman Cross, who has been drawn in Group C alongside James Wade, Boris Krcmar and Jim Williams, endured a tough 18 months of late, but he won last month’s European Championship after beating Van Gerwen in Salzburg.
Despite winning the World Championship in 2018, Cross believes last month’s success was the biggest achievement of his career and he has now set his sights on becoming world number one.
He told the Darts Show podcast: “Out of the four majors I’ve won, I’m not snubbing anything else, but it was probably the most important one that I’ve won.
“I needed a win in my career, and from where I’ve been, it’s been tough, so it was nice to turn that corner and get that feeling of winning again because you just cannot buy it.
“For me to go in there and win that [Pro Tour], it was another box-ticking exercise, and I feel in myself that there’s so much more there, and that is what I want to get out, instead of trying to play my B-game to win these titles. I want to start playing my A-game.
“Now, all of a sudden, I’m not thinking; I’m just going up there and doing. With those competitions and the way I am, I think I have a great run into the Worlds.”
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