Taylor Wins 2016 Austrian Darts Open

PHIL TAYLOR was crowned the 2016 Austrian Darts Open Champion as he defeated Michael Smith to claim a fourth European Tour title at the at the Multiversum in Schwechat, Vienna.

In his first European Tour event for two years, Taylor fired an impressive seven maximums and broke the throw three times as he squeezed past a resilient Smith 6-4 in an incredible final.

It was exhilarating stuff between Taylor and Smith, who has three European Tour titles of his own and was playing in a fifth final, with the pair trading breaks throughout.

After Smith claimed the opening leg, the 16-time World Champion quickly responded before breaking the throw on double ten for the first advantage.

However, Smith responded immediately to break back only for Taylor to once again return the favour at 3-2.

A scrappy sixth leg went the way of Smith to square things up after Taylor uncharacteristically missed five darts for a two-leg lead.

The 26-year-old then pulled out a majestic 130 finish on the bull to claim a 4-3 advantage and move within two of victory

This only awoke Taylor, who produced brilliant legs of 11 and 12 darts regain the lead at 5-4 before clinching victory in the tenth leg on double 16 to mark a successful return to European Tour action.

It wasn’t all plain sailing for Taylor in reaching the final, though, during an entertaining weekend in Vienna.

After a hard-fought 6-3 third round victory over Kim Huybrechts, in which he wired double 12 for nine-darter, Taylor raced through the quarter-finals with a 6-2 victory over former Lakeside Champion Stephen Bunting.

He then faced his toughest test in the semi-finals against a confident Kyle Anderson.

The Australian, who had previously knocked world number one Michael van Gerwen as he hit an incredible three-bull finishes in succession in a 6-4 victory, was on the hunt for his first PDC final and very nearly had the beating of Taylor.

After the pair exchanged the opening legs,  Anderson raced into a 4-1 lead and was looking the most likely to reach the final, only for Taylor to recover magnificently as he won three straight legs to level at four-all.

Anderson again got himself in front and missed one dart for the match, but an 11-darter from Taylor set up a decider which he clinched to reach the final.

Smith also had a troublesome route to the final. After recovering from behind to beat Ron Meulenkamp 6-4 in his third round game, he then repeated the same trick bring an end to Nigel Heydon’s amazing run with a 6-5 victory.

He then produced his finest darts of the day in his 6-2 semi-final win over Terry Jenkins, which saw the world number seven race into a 5-1 lead.

Jenkins, who had beaten the in-form Benito van de Pas and Peter Wright to reach the last four stage, then clawed a leg back but it wasn’t enough as Smith crawled over line, but he would have to settle for the £10,000 runner-up prize.

The next PDC European Tour event will be the European Darts Open at the Maritim Hotel from July 29-31. For ticket information for PDC European Tour events, visit www.pdc-europe.tv.

Austrian Darts Open
Sunday June 12
Evening Session
Quarter-Finals
Kyle Anderson 6-4 Michael van Gerwen 
Phil Taylor 6-2 Stephen Bunting
Terry Jenkins 6-4 Peter Wright 
Michael Smith 6-5 Nigel Heydon

Semi-Finals
Phil Taylor 6-5 Kyle Anderson 
Michael Smith 6-4 Terry Jenkins 

Final
Phil Taylor 6-4 Michael Smith

All games are the best of 11 legs

Match Stats
Quarter-Finals