Dubai: Record 16-time darts world champion Phil Taylor progressed beyond the opening round of the Dubai Duty Free Darts Masters for the first time in three attempts with a 10-5 win over Peter Wright on Thursday.
Taylor had previously never won in the emirate having suffered first round defeats to Andy Hamilton and Peter Wright in the past two editions of this tournament. However, the Englishman’s third crack at the contest saw him avenge last year’s defeat to Wright in style.
Both shared the first eight legs to draw 4-4, but Taylor pulled away with five straight legs. Wright pulled one leg back to make it 9-5 before Taylor won the next leg to book his spot in Friday’s semi-final where he will play current world and premier league champion Gary Anderson.
“I love Dubai but it’s one of those places where I’ve never done well at my darts,” said Taylor. “It means a lot to finally get past the first round. This is a tournament I’ve never won and I really want to win it.
“Hopefully this year I can go through and win it, who knows, it’s open enough. I’ve been practicing and I’m honestly playing better than I ever have in my life.
“I’ve just got to take my practice game up on to the board now and it’s going to come, they [the opposition] know that it’s going to come and I can start playing proper darts again. I showed shadows of it tonight but it wasn’t good enough.”
Of his win over Wright he added: “At 4-4 Peter missed a couple of doubles and started shaking his head, he seemed to lack confidence. But when his back was against the wall he came out fighting.
“At 9-4 up I was thinking you’ve got to get through now but then he’s gone 9-5 and I’m thinking ‘please don’t’, because he’s one of those players that can come back and hit everything he looks at.”
Asked if it was important to get one over on Wright, who had knocked him out at this stage last year, Taylor replied: “Of course, I want to beat him every week, I want to beat him last week, this week and the next week, but that doesn’t just go for Peter that goes for everybody. My darts are in the right place so there are no excuses.”
Taylor will now face Anderson in Friday’s semi-final after Anderson came back from 8-7 down to beat James Wade 10-8 in his quarterfinal.
Meanwhile, defending champion and World No.1 Michael Van Gerwen survived a scare to pull back from 4-1 down to eventually beat Raymond Van Barneveld 10-8 to continue his unbeaten run in the emirate and keep his hopes of a Dubai hat-trick alive.
Van Gerwen will play Adrian Lewis in Friday’s other semi-final after Lewis dispatched of Stephen Bunting in his quarterfinal. The lead switched five times during that encounter with Lewis having to wrestle back from 9-7 down to win 10-9.
Quarter-final results
Adrian Lewis 10-9 Stephen Bunting
Gary Anderson 10-8 James Wade
Phil Taylor 10-5 Peter Wright
Michael Van Gerwen 10-8 Raymond Van Barneveld
Semi-final matches (Friday)
Phil Taylor vs Gary Anderson
Michael Van Gerwen vs Adrian Lewis
*Winner of each semi-final to play final, also on Friday
