Friday’s Headline Double the one to be on at the World Matchplay

Last night’s action saw Michael van Gerwen and Adrian Lewis both progress to the semi-finals of this year’s World Matchplay, and tonight it’s the turn of Gary Anderson, Steve Beaton, Mervyn King and Phil Taylor to try and do the same.

With both the Power and the Flying Scotsman being heavy odds on favourites to sail through, our Headline Double is offering 9/4 for the pair to win their respective matches by seven or more legs.

Though he faces an in-form Mervyn King, Phil Taylor hasn’t lost a quarter-finals match at this event since 2005, winning an incredible seven of his last nine by a margin of seven or more.

And as for head-to-heads, the Power has beaten the King in eight of their nine meetings at major tournaments, including a 17-6 win at the Winter Gardens in the 2009 semis.

Taylor is settling into this tournament nicely now following a tough opening match against Robbie Green, and while King has performed well up to this point, it’s hard to see a way past Taylor in this one.

The second match of the evening sees world champion Gary Anderson face surprise quarter-finalist Steve Beaton, who saw off world number seven Michael Smith in the last round.

But this is a trophy Anderson will be keen to get his hands on, having never reached a Matchplay final.

Coincidentally, the last time these two met – and the first time in a major tournament – was last year in Blackpool, where Anderson ran out a comfortable 10-4 winner in the first round, which will no doubt give the Scotsman confidence going into this one.

Anderson has breezed through this event so far this year, dropping just six legs in the first two rounds combined, and you can expect that run to continue tonight as he faces world number 26 Beaton.

All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.