DUBAI // When Gary Anderson beat the world’s greatest ever darts player to win the world championship for the first time in January, he toasted his success with a cup of coffee.
Now Phil Taylor, the defeated finalist that night, stands between Anderson and the coffee pot trophy on offer for the winner of the Dubai Duty Free Darts Masters.
The two will reprise the world championship final when they meet in the first semi-final at the Dubai Tennis Stadium on Friday evening.
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Both players have acknowledged they have designs on the prize for both aesthetic and competitive reasons - and Anderson all the more so because of his penchant for coffee.
“It would be nice, being my first time here, and it is a lovely coffee pot trophy,” Anderson said. “Latte, cappuccino, I don’t care - it’ll look good on the mantle-shelf.”
Seeing as he has won 16 world titles to date, Taylor rarely defers to anyone on the oche.
However, after beating Peter Wright to claim his first win in three visits to Dubai, Taylor suggested Anderson should be considered the favourite ahead of their semi-final.
“Gary is the favourite - and I don’t mind that at all,” Taylor said, following his 10-5 win over Wright, the player who beat him in this stadium last year.
“It will be a cracking game. Gary knows what Phil is like and Phil knows what Gary is like. It will be a cracker. Let’s go.
“It means everything. I don’t have to have a day off. It means a lot to me. It is a tournament I have never won, and it is a tournament I want to win.”
While Taylor was uncharacteristically poor on his first two trips to compete in the UAE, this is Anderson’s debut in Dubai.
As the only outdoor competition in professional darts, this weekend has been a step into the unknown for the former builder.
Anderson reckoned he had “lost a few calories” in the sweaty conditions on stage, and was happy with the way he managed to cope.
“I come from a country where it is usually minus seven [degrees], so this is a bit hot,” said the Scotsman, who beat James Wade 10-8 in Round 1.
“It is not as bad as I thought it would be. I thought I was going to pass out on the stage as soon as I got up there.
“But in the night-time it is a lot cooler, it was not as hot as this morning when we were beside the pool. It is a learning curve.”
Before the competition, Anderson had taken on board some advice from Adrian Lewis - a veteran of all three Dubai events so far - about coping with the prevailing conditions.
Lewis, a former two-time world champion, admitted he might have been a little too liberal in sharing strategy this weekend.
He was even being generous mid-match against Stephen Bunting in their quarter-final, and he only just managed to advance 10-9.
“At one point, I looked at [Bunting] and told him to just wait for two seconds until the wind passes. He did that, hit a 180, and I thought: why the hell am I telling him that?”
Michael Van Gerwen, who has never lost in Dubai, maintained his remarkable form in this arena by fending off his Dutch compatriot Raymond Van Barneveld.
The defending champion was 4-1 down, but battled back to win 10-8, maintaining a Dubai record three-dart-average of 106.8 over the course of the match.
pradley@thenational.ae
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