Phil Taylor is through to the second round of the PDC World Darts Championship after a hard fought win over Chris Dobey at the Alexandra Palace on Saturday (NZ time).
The 16-Time world champion beat fellow Englishman Dobey 3-1 on the second day of the tournament.
Taylor, who will retire from competitive darts at the conclusion of the two-week event averaged 96.55 against ‘Hollywood’.
The world no. 6 appeared nervous and sluggish during stages of the match, but showed some signs of his vintage best during the win.
‘The Power’ raced out to a 2-0 lead in the match which egnighted when Dobey fought back to win the third set.
Dobey then had two darts to win the fourth and force a deciding fifth set, but failed to capitalise and Taylor took advantage and ultimately won the match.
The 57-year-old will have to wait until Thursday (NZ time) to find out who he will face in the second round at Ally Pally.
Taylor will match up against either Justin Pipe, or the winner of a preliminary qualifier against Xiaochen Zong or New Zealander Bernie Smith.
Elsewhere, World Youth Champion Dimitri Van den Berg beat world No.21 Stephen Bunting, recording an average of 104.17, while Rob Cross booked a second-round spot with a comfortable 3-0 win over Japanese qualifier Seigo Asada
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