PDC World Darts Championship 2018: Phil Taylor Battles to Win in Friday Matches

Phil Taylor eventually progressed to Round 2 of the World Darts Championship on Friday, overcoming a determined Chris Dobey 3-1.

Taylor is set to retire from the sport at the end of the tournament and is seeking what would be a remarkable 17th World Championship. While it was clear the man known as "The Power" was a little overwhelmed by the occasion, he overcame some inconsistent form to win through in the end.

Here are the results from Friday's play at the tournament, the schedule for Saturday and a recap of Taylor's result at the Alexandra Palace, London.

Friday Results

Seigo Asada 2-1 Gordon Mathers (Preliminary)

(21) Stephen Bunting 1-3 Dimitri Van den Bergh

(6) Phil Taylor 3-1 Chris Dobey

(20) Rob Cross 3-0 Seigo Asada

Saturday Schedule

Brendan Dolan vs. Alan Ljubic (Preliminary) 

(14) Benito van de Pas vs. Steve West

(22) Mervyn King vs. Zoran Lerchbacher

Luke Humphries vs. Jeff Smith (Preliminary)

(19) Joe Cullen vs. Jermaine Wattimena

(12) Jelle Klaasen vs. Jan Dekker

Friday Recap

As we can see courtesy of the PDC Darts Twitter account, the atmosphere was electric at the iconic venue for what was potentially Taylor's final outing at the oche:

Taylor was emotional as he strode onto the stage, and his performance in the first set reflected that.

His scoring was subpar and Dobey had a couple of decent opportunities to apply pressure and take an early lead. In the end, in the deciding leg, Taylor found some form and got the first set on the board.

The second was a similar story, as Dobey did well to stay in contention in the majority of legs, before Taylor gradually cranked up the pressure and clinched the set. With a 2-0 advantage, it was a long way back for the underdog now.

As noted by the PDC's Dan Dawson, Dobey wasn't seizing the opportunities that were presented to him early on:

Taylor continued to coast along in the third, with Dobey allowing him off the hook a couple of times with some loose throws to begin with. But with little to lose, the outsider relaxed in the crunch moments late in the set and took the decider with an 11-dart leg.

It gave Dobey some encouragement, and in the fourth set he was the stronger player, setting up two darts to take it to a decider; he missed both, allowing Taylor in and giving him the chance to throw for the match.

As he has done throughout his distinguished career, the Power took the opportunity and wrapped up a 3-1 win.

Earlier in the session a brilliant match was played out between Van den Bergh and Bunting, with the former eventually coming through a 3-1 winner.

Darts statistician Christopher Kempf broke down how impressive Van den Bergh's performance was:

Van den Bergh, who started superbly, raced into a two-leg lead before Bunting, who landed a maximum 170 checkout earlier in the match, was able to pull one back.

The 21st seed, a two-time BDO champion, sought to apply pressure in the fourth stanza and appeared primed to take the match to a decider. But in the end the youngster was too good, as he set up a meeting with either Klaasen or Dekker in Round 2.