Phil Taylor had another slight scare in his bid to win his 17th world title at this year’s PDC World Darts Championship in his 5-3 victory over Vincent van Der Voort.
Taylor lost three consecutive sets to the Dutchman to trail 3-2 at the midway stage of the match and then had to watch his opponent throw darts at a double for a 4-2 lead in the deciding leg of the sixth set.
Fortunately for the 16-time world champion, the Dutch Destroyer failed to take his chance allowing Taylor to level the contest, before winning the final two sets to book a place in the semi-final.
The Power will meet a familiar foe in his last four match this evening as he will take on Raymond van Barneveld, who edged a thrilling contest with Stephen Bunting 5-4 at the Alexandra Palace in the final game on Friday evening.
There was nothing between the two players throughout the encounter but Barney used all his years of experience to see out the final set in his favour to ensure another semi-final appearance in this tournament.
In the first semi-final this evening, defending champion Michael van Gerwen takes on Gary Anderson in a repeat of their match up in this tournament at the third round stage 12 months ago.
Anderson led 3-1 against Mighty Mike before the eventual champion won three consecutive sets to advance 4-3 in one of the games of the competition in 2014.
Van Gerwen produced his highest average of the tournament to beat Robert Thornton 5-2 in the previous round on Thursday evening, while the Flying Scotmans dropped just one set to fellow Scottish compatriot Peter Wright to make it through to the last four.
