Phil Taylor beats Vincent van der Voort to move into World semi-finals

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/jan/02/phil-taylor-darts-pdc-world-championships

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Phil Taylor survived another scare in the PDC World Championships at Alexandra Palace in London before beating Vincent van der Voort 5-3 to move into the semi-finals.

The 16-times world champion came from behind to beat Kim Huybrechts in the previous round and saw a 2-0 lead wiped out when Van der Voort, who was struggling with a back injury, won nine of 11 legs to go 3-2 up.

When Taylor missed eight shots at double in the next set, Van der Voort had his chance to go 4-2 up but he failed to take it and Taylor made him pay.

Taylor told Sky Sports Darts: “His back had gone, he’s hobbling and I can see he’s in agony and it’s in my head, ‘Come on, he’s in trouble’, and yet he still went up there and hit his scores, hit his 180s and did what he had to do.”

Van der Voort refused to blame the injury but vowed to return to the tournament next year and go further. “I just gave it everything,” he said. “I tried my hardest, I wasn’t consistent enough.

“I don’t want to make any excuse because that makes his effort less. He’s the best player ever. I just lost to the better player today.

“I’m going the right way. I want to come back to this place for many years. Unfortunately I wasn’t in the best health state of my career but I know what I have to do and what to expect next year and I’ll be back.”

It had looked like a routine outing as Taylor cruised into a 2-0 lead but Van der Voort was finding a groove and took advantage of misses from Taylor to go on a huge charge and flip the game on its head.

After falling 3-2 behind, Taylor appeared nervous and he almost gave Van der Voort a commanding lead, missing double 16 three times and then double eight three times before finally taking the set.