Taylor struggled to find his rhythm against his young opponent

Van Gerwen had a shot for the match but missed his chance and Taylor finally won in the eighth leg of the decider.

The 13-time world champion took the first set but the Dutch 18-year-old hit back to level and then took the third set with the help of a 106 checkout.

Taylor made it 2-2 after van Gerwen missed double 12 to win the match and sealed victory with a 12-dart finish.

There were also wins at Alexandra Palace for Roland Scholten, who beat Matt Clark 3-2, and Peter Manley, who was a 3-2 victor over Toon Greebe.

Scholten won the opening two legs of his match but Clark hit back and forced Scholten to dig deep to go 1-0 up with an 11-dart finish.

The next five legs all went to Clark, before Scholten recovered deep into the third set and then came up with an 86 checkout for 2-1.

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Clark waltzed through the third set to level at 2-2. Scholten spurned three chances to close out the match, allowing Clark to take the contest to the decider.

But Scholten regained his composure and took the final two legs to close out the win.

Manley took the opening set against Dutch teenager Greebe who then showed his mettle to level the match with a 94 checkout and bullseye finish.

The third set went to Manley without reply, but Greebe levelled again before going 2-1 up in the deciding set.

Manley hit back to take the final three legs and belatedly see off the Dutch challenger with a double-20 finish.

In the night's final clash, world number 24 Mervyn King edged Michael Rosenauer 3-2 in another thrilling game.

The Englishman raced into a two-set lead but the German qualifier hit back to take the match to a decider.

King then raced into a two-leg lead in the decider before missing a double 16 to keep the German's hopes alive.

But King held his nerve to clinch a thrilling set 5-3 and take the match.