As bad as I feel for dismissing the chances of Brendan Dolan in his semi-final last night, I am confident I was in the overwhelming majority by doing so, and I hope the Northern Irishman takes added pleasure by proving everybody wrong.
By beating James Wade 5-2 yesterday evening, the 38-year-old produced one of the shocks of the year and did so in stylish and record breaking fashion by becoming the first man to hit a nine-darter in the history of the World Grand Prix.
The assured nature of his performance was unbelievable seen as it was his first ever major semi-final, he lost the first set and he wasn’t flustered by a strong sixth set from Wade which he won 3-0.
The £40,000 that he is guaranteed for reaching the final will rocket him from 36th in the world up to 25th, but he won’t be settling for that just yet and will have his sights on the winner’s prize of £100,000 which would take him all the way into the top 16.
In his way, though is a ferociously in form Phil Taylor who saw off Richie Burnett in spectacular fashion, breaking records himself with an average of 103.02, his highest ever in the competition.
The Power lay down a marker in the first set not missing a double to start or finish and although the Welshman won the second and did his best to stay with the world number one, he was always fighting a losing battle.
Burnett will be far from disappointed after the defeat though and will take not just his £20,000 prize money away, but also a renewed confidence in his game and the belief that he can really make an impact at the World Championships.
The Prince of Wales can count himself a bit unlucky that his run to the semis will only advance him four places in the Order of Merit, but it is still progress and he will sit nicely in 37th place when the tournament comes to an end.
The unluckiest man in terms of rankings from the tournament would have to be Mark Hylton who did brilliantly to make the quarter-finals, due to the success of Burnett and Dolan, will not improve on his current ranking of 38. Very unfortunate.
As far as the final goes, there is no money to be won really. Taylor is 1/25 with Skybet and you can’t really argue with them. Whoever had reached the final, with the Power in this form he would have been a huge favourite and I don’t think Dolan will be able to live with him.
Taylor to win 6-2 is available at 10/3 and if I was going for anything, that would be my choice.
These two actually met in the first round of last year’s tournament which Taylor won in very comfortable fashion. Here he is claiming the second set:
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