Rob Cross vs Ryan Searle Prediction: Expect a tight outcome

Rob Cross and Ryan Searle will meet in the round ⅛ of the Darts World Matchplay at Winter Gardens in Blackpool. After a bright start to this tournament, the two players will have high hopes to keep things going here. Who makes it to the next round?

Rob Cross has been inconsistent in recent times, but last time out against Gian van Veen, he secured a 13-12 win in the round of 1/16 of this tournament. Rob Cross had 7 180 throws in that game, averaging 3darts of 100.42. In the meantime, prior games to that win saw Rob Cross suffer consecutive losses to Michael Smith and Luke Littler in games that ended 0-6 and 8-3, respectively. Heading into this game, Rob Cross is ranked 6th in the World Darts rankings.

Ryan Searle is coming off a 4-10 win over Damon Heta in the round 1/16 of this World Matchplay. In that encounter, Ryan Searle had 2 180 throws but averaged 101.01 3darts. However, looking at Ryan Searle's last performances, the Englishman has just one defeat in his last four games, coming against Robert Owen in a 6-1 encounter in the Players Championship 14. Yet, Ryan Searle still secured wins over Patrick Geeraets and Jeffrey Sparidaans. Heading into this game, Ryan Searle is ranked 19th in the world darts rankings. 

This is a tough one to pick, considering the performances of both players up to this stage of the competition. However, Rob Cross is ahead of Ryan Searle in overall performances and has also won the last two meetings of this fixture. While this could be a tight one, Ryan Searle should have his luck, but I do not think it would be enough to stop Rob Cross from winning.