Grand Slam of Darts quarters: Taylor and Barney favoured to meet

So, ahead of the quarters in the second half of the draw, official tournament betting partners Coral preview the action on Friday night, when again promises to excite with the matches now being first to 16 legs.

Phil Taylor v Robert Thornton

As stated above, The Power had to dig deep to see off fellow veteran The Bull, who was 4-0 up at one stage, in the last 16 but eventually came through to win 10-6.

Taylor has a dominant 17-6 career record over next opponent The Thorn, and is heavily odds-on at 1/4 to beat him too. This duo faced each other in the 2013 final here, where the Scot was thrashed 16-6, but this could go closer this time and so six-time champ The Power is 9/1 to triumph 16-9.

Physically shaking @PhilTaylor after his last 16 round tie https://t.co/GTpqfoMMKl

— PDC Darts (@OfficialPDC) November 11, 2015

Thornton has defeated Taylor fairly recently, though, in last year’s Players Championship semi-final in Wigan and the 2015 World Grand Prix winner can be backed at 3/1 to reach the last four here.

If you fancy Taylor to go all the way and retain the sole major title he still holds, he is second-favourite to do so at 2/1. Thornton, meanwhile, is down at 16/1 to claim his second premier trophy of the year and fourth of his career.

Mark Webster v Raymond van Barneveld

For the first time in quite a while, Barney goes into a match in the latter stage of a tournament as the favourite (odds-on at 1/2), and it remains to be seen how he can cope with that tag.

The 2012 champion has made it to this stage in real grinding fashion, after changing tactics in his second round tie with the more fancied Wade, who clearly didn’t appreciate the Dutchman taking his time as he refused to shake his hand.

MACHINE BROKEN! @raybar180 breaks the machine to move into the last 8 https://t.co/dnk8bcaSwq

— PDC Darts (@OfficialPDC) November 11, 2015

But that lack of sportsmanship by The Machine will certainly not worry Van Barneveld, who battled back from 7-4 down to take the next six legs to win, and can only inspire him to greater things.

Not many can stop a rampant Barney on a mission, and Webster (13/8 match chance), who is by far the youngest competitor of the four on the night by 16 years, is his next unlucky challenger. It is back-in-form The Spider, though, who has won the last two of their meetings, although the last one was over a year ago and they are tied in head-to-heads at five-all.

They’ve never faced each other in a match with this many legs, and you’d surely back the Dutch great to come through this eventually, depending on which Barney turns up. At 12/1 and third-favourite he has dramatically moved up the tournament outright market, while former BDO world champion Welshman Webster is 28/1 to win his first PDC major.

Mark Webster's winning dart to knock out Gary Anderson. #SinghaGSOD https://t.co/EgxoBj82gr

— PDC Darts (@OfficialPDC) November 11, 2015

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Coral’s top tip: Despite Barney’s tournament outright odds dramatically shortening, he is still a tempting 12/1 shout so take those odds while you can!