Taylor Beats King

Phil Taylor eased his way into the last 16 of the Grand Slam of Darts and eliminated Mervyn King in the process with a 5-3 victory on Wednesday night.

Despite winning his opening two group matches, three-time champion Taylor was still not guaranteed his place in the knockout stages and needed three legs against rival King to progress.
Taylor signalled his intent with four maximums with his first four darts, but it was King who grabbed the first break of throw in the third leg.
Taylor swiftly hit back on double eight and, despite missing five darts at a double in the next, the Stoke thrower secured his place in the next round after a rare visit to double one.

Wednesday results

Adrian Lewis 5-2 Vincent van der Voort
Wes Newton 5-1 Barrie Bates
Steve Beaton 5-2 James Hubbard
John Part 5-3 Arron Monk
Co Stompe 2-5 Martin Phillips
Phil Taylor 5-3 Mervyn King
Mark Webster 5-3 Jan Dekker
Paul Nicholson 5-4 Magnus Caris

A second 13-dart leg put Taylor 4-3 up and victory was sealed in the next when the 15-time world champion broke King clinically with his first dart at tops.
Speaking to Sky Sports HD1 after the match, Taylor, who will face Wes Newton in the next round, said: "That was a proper game of darts. Mervyn came out to win that. It's great now, we've got him and Paul Nicholson, who's also a bit of a bad boy, we just need Ted Hankey to come over now."

Emphatic

The result also ensured Steve Beaton joined Taylor in qualifying from Group E. The 'Bronzed Adonis', who needed to better King's result, overcame 19-year-old wonderkid James Hubbard 5-2 earlier in the night.
Fleetwood thrower Newton now has the unenviable task of facing Taylor in the last 16 after he finished second in Group F thanks to an emphatic 5-1 victory over an out-of-sorts Barrie Bates.
That victory momentarily put Newton level at the top of Group F with Paul Nicholson. However, 'The Asset' finished top with a dramatic 5-4 win over Sweden's No.1 Magnus Caris in the last match of the evening and will next face 1996 world champion Beaton.
Current world champion Adrian Lewis kicked off Wednesday night's action with an incredible 13-minute victory over winless Dutchman Vincent van der Voort.
'Jackpot' raced to his third successive win in the competition 5-2 and will continue his preparations for his world-title defence with a last-16 showdown against John Part.
Part finished the group stages with a 5-3 win over Arron Monk but then required some help from Mark Webster before he could celebrate his progression from Group G.
And the Welsh left-hander did not disappoint as he battled back from 3-2 down to defeat Jan Dekker and secure his and Part's passage through to the next phase.
Also on Wednesday evening, Co Stompe took on Martin Phillips in a winner-takes-all Group H contest, with the 'Welsh Captain' looking to avenge his heartbreaking defeat to Stompe at last year's event.

And Phillips did just that, producing two 13-dart legs and a stylish 107 checkout to book a last-16 meeting with compatriot Webster.