World Darts Championship 2023/24 | Semi-Finals Preview and Order of Play

The final four face off for a date with destiny at the 2023/24 World Darts Championship at Alexandra Palace on Tuesday.

Ninety-six came, now just four remain after 14 days of scintillating competition on the sport’s greatest stage.

For the first time since 2006, all four PDC World Championship semi-finalists hail from England, with the line-up including only one former World Champion, while the other three contenders are all appearing at this stage of the event for the first time.

The opening Semi-Final sees Rob Cross, the 2018 World Champion, aim to end the historic run of teenage sensation Luke Littler.

Littler has made global headlines by announcing himself as the most exciting 16-year-old talent in the world of sport over the past fortnight.

The reigning World Youth champion has already made history by becoming the youngest player to win a match at the PDC World Championship and has backed that up with a further four dominant displays, dropping just four sets en route to the semis.

Littler thrashed 2012 Lakeside Champion Christian Kist in straight sets with a 106.12 average – the highest of any debutant in the World Championship, before dumping out UK Open champion Andrew Gilding and Canadian number one Matt Campbell with averages of 92 and 97 respectively.

He then dismantled his darting idol Raymond van Barneveld 4-1 in the Last 16 with 105 average and went on to demolish Brendan Dolan 5-1 in the Quarter-Finals on New Year’s Day with an average of 102.

The Runcorn sensation is now just two wins away from becoming the youngest World Champion in darts history ahead of his 17th birthday on January 21st, but faces his toughest test yet against a player who knows what it takes to go the distance on this stage.

Littler is looking to emulate the achievement of Cross – who claimed the world title in his debut appearance in 2018, defeating the retiring Phil Taylor in the final.

Cross is through to the Semi-Finals here for the first time since that life-changing triumph and has done so in remarkable fashion.

He had dropped just two sets in reaching the Semi-Finals, starting with a 3-0 rout of France’s Thibault Tricole, before overcoming Sweden’s Jeffrey de Graaf 4-2 and whitewashing a struggling Jonny Clayton 4-0.

However, he looked to be staring down the barrel of a crushing defeat just over 24 hours ago, trailing Chris Dobey 4-0, but only to mount an astonishing comeback to prevail 5-4 in a nail-biting tie break set.

In doing so, Cross became the first player ever to overturn a four-set deficit in a PDC World Championship Quarter-Final and is now aiming to seize that reprieve and utilise his vast experience to crush Littler’s fairy-tale title dream.

The evening’s second Semi-Final sees three-time major winner Luke Humphries take on rank outsider Scott Williams.

Humphries has had to survive two huge scares to keep his hopes of a maiden world title alive, notably coming through a sudden death classic to edge out Joe Cullen in the final match of 2023, surviving multiple match darts in the process.

Having swept aside Lee Evans in his opener, Humphries was also forced to recover from 3-1 down to deny Germany’s Ricardo Pietreczko in a last-set decider as he defied a partisan German contingent in the crowd.

His Quarter-Final, however, proved to be a much more straightforward affair, resulting in a 5-1 rout of Dave Chisnall with a 103.5 average to reach this stage of the competition for the first time in seven appearances.

Humphries came in to the tournament as favourite on the back of a remarkable spell of dominance, having claimed the World Grand Prix, Grand Slam and Players Championship Finals titles in a period of less than two months, and has extended his unbeaten run to 17 matches in all competitions.

Williams, meanwhile, is enjoying his best run in a televised tournament to date, defying the odds to knock out four seeded players and climb a minimum of 22 places to 30th in the provisional Order of Merit.

Having won just £32,750 in prize money throughout an otherwise below-par season, he is now sitting on a minimum of £100,000 for his exploits at Ally Pally – a career-changing run which has elevated him into the sport’s elite.

The former Players Championship event winner, who was beaten by Cross in Round Two on his debut here last year, has displayed trademark flamboyance to wow the crowd and is now poised for the biggest match of his life once again.

After defeating PDC Asian champion Haruki Muramatsu 3-1 in Round One, Williams dumped out seventh Danny Noppert in straight sets.

The former ProTour event winner came agonisingly close to a nine-darter in the last set against Noppert, wiring double 18 for perfection, and went on to knock out 26th seed Martin Schindler in a last-set thriller and tenth seed Damon Heta 4-1 to continue his dream run.

He then pulled off one of the biggest upsets in the tournament’s history by ousting three-time champion Michael van Gerwen 5-3 in the Quarter-Finals with a 96.3 average, and will be determined to back that up with another significant scalp.

The action gets under way from 7.30pm GMT, with Semi-Final matches to be contested over the best of 11 sets.

Matches must be won by two clear legs, unless the score reaches 5-5 in the deciding set, in which case a sudden-death leg will be played.

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World Darts Championship 2023/24 Semi-Finals Schedule

Tuesday January 2

7.30pm-11pm
Rob Cross v Luke Littler
Luke Humphries v Scott Williams