PHIL TAYLOR POWERED into the quarter-finals of the PDC World Darts Championship on Thursday, setting up a mouth-watering clash with Gary Anderson.
Taylor, a 16-time world champion, will bring his top-level darts career to a close at the end of the competition but made sure of a blockbuster meeting with Anderson in a repeat of the 2015 final, which the Scot won.
‘The Power’ made light work of third-round opponent Keegan Brown, completing a comfortable 4-0 victory to boost his confidence about claiming a first title since 2013.
“I am starting to believe I can win,” Taylor said in an interview posted on the PDC’s Twitter account. “Whether I can or not I don’t know, but I feel like I can.”
Anderson found the going much tougher in his clash with Steve West.
The 47-year-old, last year’s runner-up, appeared to be struggling with a back injury and averaged 95.26 while converting just 15 of the 44 checkout opportunities he engineered.
However, Anderson eventually got the job and remains on course to make the final for a fourth year in succession.
In the day’s earlier session, Dimitri Van den Bergh sprung a surprise by hammering fifth seed Mensur Suljovic 4-0. Van den Bergh’s next opponent will be 20th seed Rob Cross, who overcame John Henderson 4-1.
Meanwhile, Darren ‘The Demolition Man’ Webster lived up to his moniker by sweeping aside Toni Alcinas 4-0, the 23rd seed setting up a quarter-final clash with Jamie Lewis, who beat James Richardson 4-1.
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