Grand Slam of Darts: Cross beats Heta while Bunting progresses
American debutant Buntz took on Briton Bunting in the first match of the evening. It was a match that could not live up to the expectations created by yesterday's exciting quarter-finals, and it ended in a 16-8 victory for Bunting.
The first 12 legs were still evenly matched. Buntz broke as early as the first, but was broken back twice, and evened the break count again in the ninth leg.
It was 6-6, but that was the moment it became clear that Buntz was playing the first best-of-31 match of his career.
He was broken twice and Bunting ran out to 11-6, with a fine 126 finish among others.
In the sequel, the American was broken twice more, and the match did not last long. Bunting managed to win it mainly due to his superb checkout score: 61.54 per cent.
For Buntz, it was 29.63 per cent. The Briton's 3-dart average was also better: 96.79 versus 89.87.
Heta collapses
With one quarter-final to go, the question became whether the semi-finals would be purely British. The answer to that became "yes". Heta - the last remaining non-Englishman - took on Cross.
The Australian Heta had won over Michael van Gerwen in the eighth final, and expectations were high, but he lost to Cross 16-6.
He was able to keep up reasonably well at first. After 12 legs it was 6-6, with two breaks on either side. However, that was the moment of the Australian's total collapse. He did not win a single leg after that.
