DENBIGH destroyer Mark Webster believes he has got a “great chance” to beat the greatest player in the history of darts this weekend.
For the second year running, Webster has made his way through to the quarter-finals of the Ladbrokes.com World Professional Darts Championship, but to emulate last year’s run to the last-four he has to derail Phil “The Power” Taylor’s tilt at a sweet 16th world title.
After stunning wins over Steve Maish and Ronnie Baxter, with 97-plus averages, Webster’s average dropped to 93 in the 4-1 third round win over surprise package Mark Hylton.
On the same night, Taylor’s bid to win a 16th world championship continued as he overcame colourful qualifier Peter Wright 4-1 at London’s Alexandra Palace.
The pair will meet on New Year's Day in a repeat of their semi-final a year ago, when the Stoke legend took a 6-0 victory.
Webster, though, continued to show his improvement since then with a good performance to see off Hylton 4-1, hitting finishes of 156, 128, 125 and 118 in another high-quality performance.
"It was a massive round to get through in terms of the competition and I felt under pressure, but I got the job done," said Webster.
"That average won't win me a world championship but I'm still in the tournament and I'll be better in the next round.
“I played Phil last year and it didn't go well for me but I've learned from that and I think I've got a great chance."
Wednesday’s contest fell in favour of the Welshman when Hylton missed five darts to win the third set for a 2-1 lead, and from then Webster won six of the next eight legs to progress.
Both Webster and Taylor have won 11 sets and lost just one set during their campaign, but the defending champion remains odds-on favourite to progress through to Sunday’s semi-finals.
Webster is the fifth favourite for the £1 million tournament, generally seen as a 12/1 shout with bookmakers.