The Sports Lowdown For All Your News and OpinionsPhil Taylor has overtaken Michael van Gerwen in the 2015 World Series standings after his last-leg win over a battling Peter Wright in the Zipang Casino Japan Darts Masters.
The World number two saw off a lacklustre Raymond van Barneveld, who changed his darts mid-match, Gary Anderson and Wright in the final on his way to picking up the Japan Darts Masters crown.
Fellow finalist Peter Wright saw off Michael van Gerwen in the semi-final, breaking the World number one’s throw in the deciding leg, taking out 141 on D12 to get to the final in an emotional win for ‘Snakebite’.
The final was finely poised at 2-2 four legs in before Taylor reeled off five consecutive legs to storm into a 7-2 lead. However, the Scotsman stayed strong and won five consecutive legs himself to take the match to a final leg, but Taylor stopped the rot and hit D10 in the last-leg shootout to take the Zipang Casino Japan Darts Masters title.
Peter Wright has now lost all four of the televised finals he has appeared in, but he will be aiming to put this right in the World Series triple-header in Oceania in August, and of course has an earlier opportunity in the World Matchplay in July.
‘The Power’ now moves to the top of the World Series standings with his Japan victory along with his final appearance in the Dubai Duty Free Darts Masters, where he lost to Michael van Gerwen. Here is how the table stands.
Following Zipang Casino Japan Darts Masters:
20 Phil Taylor
17 Michael van Gerwen
11 Peter Wright
10 Gary Anderson
8 Adrian Lewis
6 James Wade, Raymond van Barneveld, Stephen Bunting
1 Haruki Muramatsu, Morihiro Hashimoto, Sho Katsumi, Masumi Chino, Yuki Yamada, Chikari Fujimori, Shintaro Inoue, Katsuya Aiba
