Phil Taylor confirmed his passage through to the last 16 of the Grand Slam of Darts at the Civic Hall, Wolverhampton on Monday night after battling past Steve Beaton 5-3.
Although Beaton did manage to break his throw early on Taylor showed the class which has seen him lift no less than fifteen world darts championships in his glistening career on his way to disposing of “The Adonis”. The question now is can anybody stop Taylor regaining the Grand Slam he lost last year?
I would suggest the answer is no; last year Taylor was simply not in his best form, he lost in the Quarter Finals to the same player he defeated in last night’s group stage match – Steve Beaton. At his best Taylor is practically unbeatable, and by looking at last year’s PDC World Darts Championship (which took place just a month after the Grand Slam) we can see how off form he was. The greatest of all time crashed out at the Quarter-final stage and although for most people that would be considered a great achievement this fell below the usual extraordinarily high standards Taylor has set himself over the years – he was a troubled man.
This year Taylor’s achievements include capturing the World Matchplay in July and the World Grand Prix in October. He kept his cool in a comfortable victory over potential banana-skin opponent James Hubbard earlier this week and battled through against the aforementioned inform Steve Beaton. The question now is who can stop Taylor from taking the Grand Slam for the third time in its four year history? A number of players have the raw ability but can any hold their heads when the pressure is applied by The Power?
Adrian Lewis – Lewis, Taylor’s protégé earlier in his career certainly has the ability to beat Phil, he captured the greatest honour in the game ten months ago defeating Gary Anderson to land his first ever PDC World Darts Championship title. If (or when) these two meet it is up to Lewis to hold his head and keep up with The Power. If he can do this while making and taking chances then we might see “Jackpot” causing a bit of an upset in the latter stages of this tournament.
Gary Anderson – 2011 World Championship finalist Gary Anderson has really broke through as one of the top players in the PDC in the last couple of years since reaching the UK Open final in 2010. Anderson is the reigning Premier League champion and if The Flying Scotsman does indeed meet Phil at some point during this event he could be a real contender to stop Taylor in his tracks.
James Wade – Probably the best left-hander in the game Aldershot’s James Wade isn’t far off being the complete darts package. The reigning UK Open champion has so far beaten Dave “Chizzy” Chisnall and Justin Pipe in group D and has been tipped to go far in this year’s tournament. Wade is another with the ability to beat Taylor but if the two do meet can he handle the pressure of taking on an inform Taylor?
Paul Nicholson – Finally I will look at a real underdog. Nicholson is currently 16/1 to win the Grand Slam and it’s fair to say the Aussie-Geordie has a history with Taylor. The 2011 UK Open saw Nicholson shock the darting world taking out The Power. He appeared to mockingly wave to Taylor after this match a gesture which resulted in a lot of media attention. The two met again at this year’s World Grand Prix a game which saw Taylor comfortably beat Nicholson and get a degree of revenge for his exit from the UK Open earlier this year. Nicholson has begun this years Grand Slam with wins over Barrie Bates and Wes Newton and it looks like he will face Steve Beaton in the next round. If he can get through that one a real possibility of the Nicholson vs Taylor feud continuing will exist and who knows Nicholson could yet be the man to stop the flow of The Power – the man who thrives on boos from the fans will certainly be up for the challenge.
Taylor is rightly the favourite in the bookmakers eyes and his price of Evens shows just how confident the bookies are in him. I believe Taylor will do what Taylor does best – grind out tough matches and demolish opponents who are nervous or out of form without a second thought. He is undoubtedly the man to beat once again this year.
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