Phil Taylor has failed to start 2011 with a win!
The Unicorn star was beaten in the quarter-finals of the second Players Championship event in Germany by Denis Ovens.
It was Ronnie Baxter who took the honours, just edging out the day’s surprise package – Spain’s Antonio Alcinas.
You may remember that Alcinas was one of the star performers at December’s World Cup of Darts, when Spain enjoyed great success, including victory over the England pair of Taylor and James Wade!
It was a dramatic finale, because Alcinas took out 133 to take the final to a deciding leg…..or so he thought! The Spaniard actually needed 123 and miscounted.
Baxter nailed ‘tops’ to clinch a 6-4 win.
Taylor of course, lost to Andy Smith in Halle on Saturday as he experiments with his new darts….he has changed the barrels for the start of the season but Ovens proved too hot to handle, beating ‘The Power’ by 6 legs to 4.
And the 15-times World Champion will be doubly disappointed, because he looked on course for the final, after wins over Steve Beaton, Brendan Dolan and Peter Wright.
Taylor actually came from 3-1 down to lead 4-3, before Ovens took control.
So, it just wasn’t his weekend….Taylor’s focus now turns to the Players Championship Finals and of course, the start of the Premier League.
Apart from Taylor, it was another disappointing day for Team Unicorn in Germany.
Andy Hamilton and Terry Jenkins reached the last 16, but that’s as good as it got…..and both lost in last leg deciders….Hamilton beaten by Mark Walsh, while ‘The Bull’ was knocked out by Nigel Heydon.
In the last 32, John Part lost 6-1 to Beaton, Jamie Caven was a 6-5 loser to Tony Eccles and Raymond van Barneveld was beaten 6-4 in a high quality affair by Mark Webster.
And surprisingly, no fewer than seven Unicorn players were beaten in the 2nd Round.
Here are the casualties…..Wes Newton (5-6 Shaun Griffiths), Kirk Shepherd (4-6 Tony Eccles), Colin Osborne (4-6 John Part), Paul Nicholson (5-6 John Henderson), Arron Monk (4-6 Andy Hamilton), Michael Rosenauer (2-6 Mark Walsh) and Barrie Bates (1-6 Andree Welge).
In the 1st Round, Peter Manley lost a last leg decider to Alcinas, with the Spaniard taking 106 to win it and set himself on his way to his first ever PDC Final…..Kevin Painter was beaten 6-2 by good friend Adrian Gray (the pair travelled to Germany together!) and Joe Cullen was unlucky to lose in the last leg to young Shaun Griffiths.
Steffi Luck was beaten 6-3 in the Preliminary round by Christian Kattinger.
Results:
Quarter-Finals:
Denis Ovens 6-4 Phil Taylor
Antonio Alcinas 6-5 John Henderson
Mark Walsh 6-3 Nigel Heydon
Ronnie Baxter 6-4 Alan Tabern
Losers - £1,000
Semi-Finals:
Antonio Alcinas 6-3 Denis Ovens
Ronnie Baxter 6-2 Mark Walsh
Losers - £2,000
Final:
Ronnie Baxter 6-4 Antonio Alcinas
Winner - £6,000
Runner-up - £3,000
By STUART PYKE (Twitter @stuartpykesport)
Photo courtesy Lawrence Lustig / PDC