In the 2010 BDO World Championship, Phillips went on to reach the semi-finals for the first time in his career beating seventh seed Dave Prins 3–0 in the first round, qualifier Paul Carter 4–2 in the second round and second seed Scott Waites in the quarter-finals. Phillips had gone into a 4–0 lead before Waites brought the scores level at 4–4, before Phillips showed better consistency in the final set to reach the last four where he was beaten 6–4 by Martin Adams.