Phil Taylor has laughed in the face of his critics, those who said he was finished and Michael Van Gerwen was the new king. The Power is still very much on his throne and shows no sign of leaving it, he stormed past Peter Wright in the UK Open semi-final before winning his fifth UK Open crown against Andy Hamilton.
Taylor was imperious throughout and never gave Hamilton a chance. Hamilton did miss two darts to retake the lead in the third leg but he did reply in the fourth with a fantastic 140-checkout after Taylor missed two darts of his own. The players departed the stage at the first break with Taylor leading 3-2.
The Power returned and in full throttle; a 167-checkout was just the start before opened up a 6-2 lead. Hamilton stopped the rot with a ton checkout of his own before Taylor made it 7-3 going in to the second break with another unbelievable 121-checkout. Hamilton then missed four darts to win the 11th leg and Taylor was now 9-3 in front. Hamilton made it 9-4 before Taylor posted a 106-checkout and then a 32-checkout to win the match and still be the best player to throw an arrow. The defeat for Hamilton means that he becomes the 11th different loser in a UK Open final. As for Taylor, he takes his crown knowing that he averaged over 100 in each of his games in this tournament
Taylor got to the final as a result of seeing off the impressive Wright. Unfortunately, Wright wasn't in the sort of form he has been throughout this tournament. Taylor won three of the first four legs before the players left the stage at 3-2 to The Power. Taylor would take full advantage of Wright's lesser performance by taking the following three legs to make it 6-2 before making it 7-3 at the second break. Wright's semi-final highlights were definitely the 101 and 109-checkouts in legs 12 and 13 to make it 8-5 before Taylor took the following two legs to book his place alongside Hamilton in the final.
Hamilton survived five match darts to beat Raymond Van Barneveld in a titanic tussle. Hamilton missed three darts in the first leg but would take the following three to lead 3-2 going in to the first break. Hamilton began the second session with a 116-checkout before Barney responded with three legs in a row to lead 5-4. The Dutchman then had a dart to make 6-4 going in to the second break but he squandered it and Hamilton managed to level. A 132-checkout rounded off the straight legs at the start of the third session to give Hamilton a commanding 8-5 advantage.
Barney responded with three legs of his own to once again level the match, but the crucial leg was the 15th as Hamilton missed three darts to go within a leg of victory. Hamilton did make it 9-8 and then missed two darts to win it in the next leg as Barney followed up with a ton checkout to force a deciding leg. Barney looked to have the final leg in the bag but he missed two match darts to give Hamilton a shot. The Hammer then missed two more darts of his own to give the advantage back to Van Barneveld. But Van Barneveld again missed all three darts to seal his place in the final and this time Hamilton wasn't going to throw it away.
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