James Wade won his first title of 2020 with victory on Day Four of the PDC Summer Series in Milton Keynes, denying nine-dart hero Rob Cross in the final.
Wade reached his second final of 2020 with some brilliant darts during the day, recording ton-plus averages as he defeated Mike van Duivenbode, Nathan Aspinall and Ian White, as well as whitewashing Michael Smith 6-0 in the quarter-finals.
He also defeated Austrian newcomer Harald Leitinger and Dutchman Jeffrey de Zwaan, and saved arguably his most clinical display for the final.
Cross had landed a nine-darter during his exceptional semi-final win over Mensur Suljovic, and shared the opening four legs of the final with Wade courtesy of finishes of 101 and 108.
However, Wade produced huge checkouts of 108 and 156 to break throw as four successive legs moved the left-hander 6-2 up, before double ten and tops secured a memorable title.
Hear from your winner on Day Four of the PDC Summer Series after James Wade completes an 8-2 victory over Rob Cross to claim his first title of 2020! pic.twitter.com/oCH40ZbKi9
— PDC Darts (@OfficialPDC) July 11, 2020
"It's been a really good day and I enjoyed it," said Wade. "It's been up and down for the last three days but I think in my last four games I played really well and my finishing has been good all day.
"It's nice to get back into it and go to work. It's been wonderful spending time with my family but I knew I had to come back to work and today is why we do it - it's a lovely feeling.
"I know I can win and it's not a new thing for me. There's some tremendous players and I'm one of the fortunate ones to still be about after 20 years of playing.
"I've been doing it for a long time but I'm still keen, I can still win and make the other younger players work."
2018 World Champion Cross had earlier landed the PDC's 16th nine-darter of 2020 in style as he followed up two 180s by taking out 141 with the unique combination of treble 19, treble 16 and double 18 to record his third perfect leg.
Cross went on to win the semi-final 7-2 with a 110 average, to follow earlier ton-plus averages against Jitse van der Wal and Jamie Hughes.
He also battled past Danny Noppert and Callan Rydz in a deciding leg and overcame four-time Lakeside Women's Champion Lisa Ashton during his run to a first final of the year.
Suljovic reached his first semi-final of 2020, opening the day with a huge 108.6 average to defeat Richard North and also battling past Premier League ace Daryl Gurney amongst five high-quality wins.
White had been aiming to follow up March's Players Championship Eight win with a second success of 2020, and defeated Premier League leader Glen Durrant as well as Poland's Krzysztof Ratajski in his run to the last four.
Gurney followed up Friday's semi-final with a run to the last eight on Saturday, where he was joined by Ratajski, Michael Smith and Jamie Hughes.
Michael van Gerwen's bid to win a third event in four days was ended in round one with a 6-3 loss to Joe Murnan, while world number three Gerwyn Price lost out to Callan Rydz in the last 32 and World Champion Peter Wright was defeated by Smith in the last 16.
The overall tournament average for Day Four was 93.8, which was a record since the DartConnect scoring system began being used on the PDC circuit, with 45 ton-plus averages being achieved in 127 games.
The race for Betfred World Matchplay qualification will conclude on Sunday following Day Five in Milton Keynes, with qualifying places via the ProTour Order of Merit still up for grabs.
The 16 seeded players to come from the PDC Order of Merit are now finalised, with world number 17 Stephen Bunting needing to reach at least the semi-finals on Sunday to stand a chance of forcing his way into the World Matchplay field.
?NINE-DARTER! ?
— PDC Darts (@OfficialPDC) July 11, 2020
ROB CROSS STRIKES PERFECTION AT THE SUMMER SERIES!!
Darts well and truly, is back. pic.twitter.com/JGaxlBCVlZ
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PDC Summer Series Day Four (Players Championship 12)
Saturday July 11, Marshall Arena, Milton Keynes
Last 16
Rob Cross 6-5 Callan Rydz
Jamie Hughes 6-1 Jason Lowe
Mensur Suljovic 6-5 Kai Fan Leung
Daryl Gurney 6-4 Robert Thornton
Michael Smith 6-4 Peter Wright
James Wade 6-4 Nathan Aspinall
Krzysztof Ratajski 6-3 Jose De Sousa
Ian White 6-4 Glen Durrant
Quarter-Finals
Rob Cross 6-5 Jamie Hughes
Mensur Suljovic 6-4 Daryl Gurney
James Wade 6-0 Michael Smith
Ian White 6-1 Krzysztof Ratajski
Semi-Finals
Rob Cross 7-2 Mensur Suljovic - Rob Cross hits nine-dart finish
James Wade 7-4 Ian White
Final
James Wade 8-2 Rob Cross
Update: Justin Pipe withdrew from Day Four with an arm problem. As such, his scheduled first round opponent, Andy Hamilton, received a walkover into the second round.