Phil Taylor set to Power through at Grand Slam of Darts

Defending champion Phil ‘The Power’ Taylor takes to the oche tonight to face Ronnie Baxter the Daily Mirror Grand Slam of Darts and should stroll into the quarter-finals.

After his defeat to Ted Hankey in his second game, Taylor ditched his glasses and picked up his form, defeating Wes Newton 5-3 to book this second round game against Baxter.

Taylor – who has won the tournament every year since its creation in 2007 – is expected to waltz through to the quarter-finals and is 1/16 in the darts betting to beat Baxter this evening.

‘The Rocket’ topped his group thanks to wins over Arron Monk and Steve Beaton, although he did lose to Paul Nicholson in his second game and will have to perform better than he has done so far to trouble the 15-times world champion.

Their head-to-head record makes horrendous reading for anyone tempted to back Baxter at 7/1 in the darts market. Of their 37 meetings, Taylor has won 33 of them – hardly encouraging for the Blackpool man.

It gets worse for Baxter – Taylor admitted nerves before his group decider against Newton, but believes the longer format in the second round will suit him far more than the shorter group matches.

It’s almost impossible to look beyond a win for Taylor, so putting some cash into the correct score market looks like the best way to make some money. With Taylor winning by four legs in six of their last ten meetings, backing the game to finish 10-6 to ‘The Power’ looks very tempting at 11/2.

Could Taylor crash out? Click here for the full darts betting market