Phil Taylor made light work of Kevin Painter to secure his place in the quarter-finals of the Ladbrokes.com World Championship at Alexandra Palace.

The duo memorably met in one of the most enthralling finals of this tournament in 2004, when Taylor won in sudden death, but there was no repeat of that drama on Monday night as Taylor ominously swept a nervy-looking 17th seed aside 4-1.

Taylor broke the match open with a run of 10 consecutive legs after Painter had won the opening set.

It was a performance to give Taylor hope of claiming his first title at this tournament since 2006 and add to his record tally of 11 PDC crowns.

A maximum from Painter enabled him to clinch the opening set against Taylor's throw, wrapping up a 3-1 scoreline with a double eight at the first time of asking.

Painter's hopes of building on his early advantage were soon lost, however, as he lost his first throw of the second set. The Daventry man twice missed the chance to clinch what was the second leg and Taylor capitalised to hit double 16 before going on to tie the match at 1-1.

Taylor then broke in the first leg of the third set as he embarked on his 10-leg streak. Taylor claimed the break with a double top and ominously followed that up immediately with a maximum to assert his authority.

Painter's composure was lost as he then twice more missed chances to stay in the set, allowing Taylor to comfortably secure the third set 3-0.

The wind was now in Taylor's sails, he hit maximums in consecutive legs to start the fourth set, and although his rival responded with a 180 of his own there was no denying the top seed as he wrapped up the fourth set with his ninth consecutive leg in a row.

Painter showed some fight in the fifth set, twice hitting maximums, but it was too little, too late as Taylor clinched the win.

Taylor will meet the winner of Monday afternoon's match between eighth seed Wayne Mardle and Co Stompe in the quarter-finals.

James Wade secured a 4-2 victory over Tony Eccles to book his place in the third round.

The third seed gained revenge for his defeat to Eccles at the World Grand Prix back in October, although he failed to find his best form in front of a raucous crowd at the Alexandra Palace.

Wade claimed a first-set whitewash thanks to some poor finishing from his Hartlepool-based opponent.

Eccles missed his first nine attempts at a double but finally found his range at the start of the second set, which he won in four legs to level the match.

But Wade looked to be cruising after reeling off six of the next eight legs to open a 3-1 lead.

However, Eccles hit back by winning the fifth set against the darts with checkouts of 82, 119 and 143 to extend the match into a sixth set.

And Eccles threw to level at 3-3 in the deciding leg, but a timely 180 from Wade gave him six darts at 121 for the match. He needed just four to seal the result.

Wade will face Vincent van der Voort in the last 16.

In the final clash of the day, Barrie Bates completed a 4-0 win over 20th seed Mark Dudbridge to reach the last eight.

Dudbridge could not match his dominance of his previous game against Austrian Mensur Suljovic and was made to pay by his opponent who was more effective on the big darts.