The Power is out. The top dog has fallen. The champion is gone.
Peter Wright
WAYNE: Wright was superb again in the second round. He looks so controlled, there's nothing flustered about him and it looks as though he knows what he's doing. There's not many, at the moment, who are playing better than him. I don't get why he changed his darts. You should play your first game and know what you're going to use and it's not like he played bad in the first round with a 98.5 average. Peter has done this a lot, so I think he's trying to improve daily or he's trying to switch himself on. Sometimes you need to kick-start yourself and obviously he feels new darts all the time are the way forward.
ROD: Wright has got a good shout. He's played really well. He changed his darts, which I thought was a mistake, but he has played so well so I'd back him or Thornton each way.
Gary Anderson
WAYNE: There could be carnage in his section of the draw with Van Gerwen v Anderson and Mark Webster v Barney. There are potential banana skins everywhere in this tournament, but Gary is playing beautifully. Like a horse or a greyhound he has changed his way of running. It doesn't make sense. The 180s and 140s in huge bursts have gone, but the bad shots have also gone. They are mediocre shots now, which is better than the rubbish ones obviously. He seems to be in a decent place in his mind and knows where he's going and what he's doing. He still needs that extra go at finishing off a match and you can't do that. Against a top three or top four player he won't get a second crack of the whip.
Michael Smith
ROD: What was nice about Michael is that when he got his first set he thought 'I'm just going to enjoy it now' and when it went on and on he thought he had a chance of beating Taylor. A lot of players then fold. He didn't. He took the game to Phil and the number of 140s he hit were incredible. He took out some great shots. We said he was a brilliant darts player and he proved it. He's beaten Taylor so if he has beaten the best he can beat anybody. He will be on a high. He's a confident young man and he's worth a couple of quid.
WAYNE: From the get-go he played like a person who believed he could win the match against Taylor and the way he acquitted himself at the end of it was the way of someone who's been at the top for a long, long time. He didn't falter. The top half is blown open and Smith will believe, if he carries on in this vein, that he has got every chance of reaching a World Championship Final.
