Raymond van Barneveld and Phil Taylor will renew their World Championship rivalry after both came through thrilling quarter-finals this evening.
Taylor survived a scare against Vincent van der Voort before Van Barneveld evened things up for the Netherlands by winning a classic against Stephen Bunting.
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The Power stormed into a two-goal lead against an opponent who has never previously reached the last four at Alexandra Palace, but Van der Voort's relative big-match inexperience did not show.
Despite suffering from a back injury which hampered him from the early stages, The Dutch Destroyer produced a series of impressive three-figure checkouts to overturn his deficit and go 3-2 up.
His outstanding finishing did not last, however, and Taylor's scoring meant that he was able to recover and earn a 5-3 victory, even though he has yet to make a 100-plus checkout in the whole tournament and took 21 darts to close out what was a crucial sixth set.
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The 16-time winner will play Van Barneveld, three times his opponent at the tournament in previous years and twice in the final, in the last four, after Barney overcame BDO world champion Bunting 5-4.
With the scores at 2-2, Van Barneveld emerged from the break between sets wearing his glasses, having started without them. They improved him, but Bunting was on fire and went ahead for the first time.
Thirteen 180s helped the five-time world champion keep pace with his 29-year-old opponent, who was competing at Ally Pally for the first time, and he hit a 107 to claim the seventh set and retake the lead.
Bunting held a two-leg lead in the deciding set, but Van Barneveld halved that deficit and then produced a stunning 124 finish to level the scores. A 180 to kick the next leg off helped him clinch the match, which ended with only a 0.01 difference in the players' three-dart averages.
Holder Michael van Gerwen and Scotsman Gary Anderson will meet in the first semi-final on Saturday.
Joe Fish
