MARK WEBSTER has revealed that the heartache of missing out on October's World Grand Prix has fired his ambition at the Ladbrokes.com World Darts Championship.
The Welsh left-hander won through to the semi-finals of the World Championship in thrilling fashion on Saturday night, defeating reigning champion Phil Taylor 5-2 in the quarters.
The win avenged last year's 6-0 whitewash to Taylor in the semis at Alexandra Palace, when Webster won just four legs in the contest.
Webster suffered a further blow earlier this year when he missed out on qualification for the Bodog.com World Grand Prix, when a victory for Steve Farmer in the final Players Championship before the cut-off for the event saw him edged out of the 32-player field.
The 27-year-old has since won a Players Championship in Germany and performed superbly in taking Wales to the Cash Converters World Cup of Darts final, before taking that form to Alexandra Palace.
"I think when you get beaten like [I did last year] you've got to learn from it," said Webster.
"Even though I get upset after games, I'm not a sulker and I do go back and take stock of what's happened.
"It happened to me this year when I missed out on Ireland but it's probably the best thing that's happened to me. It got me pumped up for the rest of the year, and it's going well at the minute."
Webster admitted that his win over Taylor was "the biggest of my career, bigger than when I won the Lakeside Championship", but played down the scale of the shock he inflicted on the 15-time World Champion.
"It's a strange feeling but I genuinely believed I could do it and I'm not surprised that I won," added the Denbigh left-hander.
"I thought I could do it, I got him involved in a scrap and came out on top.
"Phil's match average was 101 and that sounds pretty good, but when he's averaging that you've got to get on top of him, and I took my chances."