The 2014 PDC World Darts Championship (known for sponsorship reasons as the 2014 Ladbrokes World Darts Championship) was the twenty-first World Championship organised by the Professional Darts Corporation since it separated from the British Darts Organisation. The event took place at the Alexandra Palace, London from 13 December 2013 to 1 January 2014.
Phil Taylor was the defending champion, having won his 16th title in 2013, but he lost 4–3 to Michael Smith in the second round.
Terry Jenkins and Kyle Anderson recorded both televised nine-dart finishes during the event, in their first-round matches against Per Laursen and Ian White, respectively.
Michael van Gerwen won his first World Championship by defeating Peter Wright 7–4 in the final. He became the sixth winner of the event and, at the age of 24, the youngest. The result also saw him replace Taylor as the new world number one. A new record of 603 maximum 180 scores were made during the championship, beating the previous best of 588 set in 2012. For the first time in PDC history, there was no Englishman in the final.
Format and qualifiers The televised stages featured 72 players. The top 32 players in the PDC Order of Merit on 26 November 2013 were seeded for the tournament. They were joined by the 16 highest non-qualified players from the Pro Tour Order of Merit, based on the events played on the 2013 PDC Pro Tour.
These 48 players were joined by two PDPA qualifiers (as determined at the PDPA Qualifying event held in Barnsley on 25 November 2013), the highest ranked non-qualified player on the PDC Challenge Tour Order of Merit, and 21 international players: the four highest names in the European Order of Merit not already qualified, and 17 further international qualifiers to be determined by the PDC and PDPA.
Some of the international players, such as the four from the European Order of Merit, and the top American and Australian players were entered straight into the first round, while others, having won qualifying events in their countries, were entered into the preliminary round.
Order of Merit Phil Taylor Michael van Gerwen Adrian Lewis Simon Whitlock Andy Hamilton James Wade Dave Chisnall Wes Newton Robert Thornton Raymond van Barneveld Justin Pipe Kim Huybrechts Kevin Painter Mervyn King Brendan Dolan Peter Wright Terry Jenkins Gary Anderson Ronnie Baxter Paul Nicholson Ian White Steve Beaton Jamie Caven Colin Lloyd John Part Mark Webster Andy Smith Richie Burnett Mark Walsh Vincent van der Voort Wayne Jones Michael Smith
Pro Tour Stuart Kellett Jelle Klaasen Jamie Lewis Darren Webster Ronny Huybrechts Joe Cullen Arron Monk Mensur Suljović John Henderson Dennis Smith Ricky Evans Kevin McDine Dean Winstanley Ross Smith Mark Dudbridge Steve Brown
European Order of MeritFirst round qualifiers Max Hopp Mareno Michels Jarkko Komula Tomas Seyler
PDPA QualifierFirst round qualifier Matt Clark
Preliminary round qualifier Ian Moss
Challenge Tour QualifierPreliminary round qualifier Ben Ward
International qualifiersFirst round qualifiers Darin Young Beau Anderson Kyle Anderson Preliminary round qualifiers Julio Barbero Morihiro Hashimoto Royden Lam Mohd Latif Sapup Per Laursen Zoran Lerchbacher Paul Lim Dennis Lindskjold Colin McGarry Devon Petersen Edward Santos Rob Szabo Gino Vos Andree Welge Colin Osborne
Edward Santos withdrew due to travel problems and was replaced by Colin Osborne, the highest-ranking non-qualified player on the PDC Order of Merit.
Prize money The 2014 World Championship features a prize fund of at least £1,050,000. The winner's prize money has been increased from £200,000 to £250,000.
The prize money is allocated as follows:
Position (num. of players) Prize money(Total: £1,050,000)Winner (1) £250,000Runner-Up (1) £100,000Semi-finalists (2) £50,000Quarter-finalists (4) £25,000Third round losers (8) £15,000Second round losers (16) £10,000First round losers (32) £6,000Preliminary round losers (8) £3,500Nine-dart finish (2) £30,000(£15,000 each)
Bracket The preliminary round was drawn on 30 November, the last 64 draw took place on 2 December 2013 and was made by Rod Harrington and Wayne Mardle. It was shown live on Sky Sports.
Preliminary round The preliminary round was played in a first to four legs format. One match was played per session with the winners playing their first-round matches later on the same day. Player Score Player Av. 76.78 Rob Szabo 4–3 Ian Moss 78.63 84.71 Colin McGarry 2–4 Per Laursen 91.55 84.03 Julio Barbero 4–1 Andree Welge 79.65 74.30 Dennis Lindskjold 1–4 Colin Osborne 89.82 88.01 Devon Petersen 4–1 Mohd Latif Sapup 82.78 90.25 Zoran Lerchbacher 4–1 Ben Ward 86.43 84.26 Morihiro Hashimoto 4–2 Paul Lim 75.26 79.45 Gino Vos 1–4 Royden Lam 79.40
Last 64
Finals
Rounds 1–4
Final
Final: Best of 13 sets. Referee: Russ Bray Alexandra Palace, London, England, 1 January 2014. (16) Peter Wright 4 – 7 Michael van Gerwen (2) 1 – 3, 0 – 3, 0 – 3, 1 – 3, 3 – 1, 3 – 1, 2 – 3, 1 – 3, 3 – 1, 3 – 1, 2 – 3 95.71 Average (3 darts) 100.10 6 180 scores 16 130 Highest checkout 124 36.54% (19/52) Checkout summary 39.06% (25/64)
Statistics {|class="wikitable sortable" style="font-size: 95%; text-align: right" |- ! Player ! Eliminated ! Played ! Sets Won ! Sets Lost ! Legs Won ! Legs Lost ! 100+ ! 140+ ! 180s ! High checkout ! Average |- |align="left"| Michael van Gerwen | Winner | 6
| 154 | 98.03 |- |align="left"| Peter Wright | Runner-up | 6
| 164 | 98.93 |- |align="left"| Adrian Lewis | Semi-finals | 5
| 158 | 97.17 |- |align="left"| Simon Whitlock | Semi-finals | 5
| 136 | 95.73 |- |align="left"| Ian White | Quarter-finals | 4
| 128 | 97.44 |- |align="left"| James Wade | Quarter-finals | 4
| 142 | 93.64 |- |align="left"| Wes Newton | Quarter-finals | 4
| 170 | 92.13 |- |align="left"| Mark Webster | Quarter-finals | 4
| 157 | 91.19 |- |align="left"| Gary Anderson | Third round | 3
| 119 | 98.00 |- |align="left"| Raymond van Barneveld | Third round | 3
| 141 | 97.68 |- |align="left"| Richie Burnett | Third round | 3
| 96 | 96.31 |- |align="left"| Robert Thornton | Third round | 3
| 136 | 92.50 |- |align="left"| Kevin Painter | Third round | 3
| 116 | 92.19 |- |align="left"| Mervyn King | Third round | 3
| 136 | 92.18 |- |align="left"| Michael Smith | Third round | 3
| 141 | 90.86 |- |align="left"| Devon Petersen | Third round | 4
| 141 | 90.32 |- |align="left"| Phil Taylor | Second round | 2
| 156 | 96.12 |- |align="left"| Paul Nicholson | Second round | 2
| 136 | 95.21 |- |align="left"| Andy Hamilton | Second round | 2
| 124 | 94.46 |- |align="left"| Kim Huybrechts | Second round | 2
| 111 | 93.51 |- |align="left"| Brendan Dolan | Second round | 2
| 167 | 93.41 |- |align="left"| Vincent van der Voort | Second round | 2
| 131 | 92.72 |- |align="left"| John Henderson | Second round | 2
| 132 | 91.62 |- |align="left"| Jamie Caven | Second round | 2
| 158 | 91.54 |- |align="left"| Kevin McDine | Second round | 2
| 81 | 90.96 |- |align="left"| Ricky Evans | Second round | 2
| 138 | 90.81 |- |align="left"| Justin Pipe | Second round | 2
| 110 | 90.43 |- |align="left"| Per Laursen | Second round | 3
| 128 | 89.54 |- |align="left"| Andy Smith | Second round | 2
| 161 | 87.14 |- |align="left"| Jarkko Komula | Second round | 2
| 126 | 86.78 |- |align="left"| Beau Anderson | Second round | 2
| 76 | 85.71 |- |align="left"| John Part | Second round | 2
| 76 | 85.19 |- |align="left"| Dave Chisnall | First round | 1
| 121 | 98.43 |- |align="left"| Terry Jenkins | First round | 1
| 170 | 95.91 |- |align="left"| Dean Winstanley | First round | 1
| 60 | 95.48 |- |align="left"| Stuart Kellett | First round | 1
| 84 | 95.09 |- |align="left"| Jamie Lewis | First round | 1
| 84 | 91.02 |- |align="left"| Joe Cullen | First round | 1
| 147 | 90.83 |- |align="left"| Mark Dudbridge | First round | 1
| 41 | 90.40 |- |align="left"| Darren Webster | First round | 1
| 81 | 90.12 |- |align="left"| Ronny Huybrechts | First round | 1
| 97 | 90.10 |- |align="left"| Zoran Lerchbacher | First round | 2
| 138 | 90.10 |- |align="left"| Wayne Jones | First round | 1
| 120 | 89.75 |- |align="left"| Kyle Anderson | First round | 1
| 141 | 89.68 |- |align="left"| Jelle Klaasen | First round | 1
| 36 | 89.56 |- |align="left"| Julio Barbero | First round | 2
| 80 | 88.78 |- |align="left"| Steve Beaton | First round | 1
| 106 | 87.76 |- |align="left"| Tomas Seyler | First round | 1
| 56 | 86.98 |- |align="left"| Ronnie Baxter | First round | 1
| 40 | 86.60 |- |align="left"| Mark Walsh | First round | 1
| 121 | 86.51 |- |align="left"| Colin Osborne | First round | 2
| 122 | 86.23 |- |align="left"| Ross Smith | First round | 1
| 107 | 86.20 |- |align="left"| Steve Brown | First round | 1
| 56 | 84.89 |- |align="left"| Mensur Suljović | First round | 1
| 130 | 84.02 |- |align="left"| Colin Lloyd | First round | 1
| 112 | 83.62 |- |align="left"| Rob Szabo | First round | 2
| 128 | 83.42 |- |align="left"| Darin Young | First round | 1
| 14 | 82.97 |- |align="left"| Royden Lam | First round | 2
| 60 | 81.43 |- |align="left"| Dennis Smith | First round | 1
| – | 80.89 |- |align="left"| Morihiro Hashimoto | First round | 2
| 152 | 80.38 |- |align="left"| Max Hopp | First round | 1
| 68 | 80.17 |- |align="left"| Mareno Michels | First round | 1
| 136 | 79.70 |- |align="left"| Arron Monk | First round | 1
| 100 | 78.64 |- |align="left"| Matt Clark | First round | 1
| 81 | 78.50 |- |align="left"| Ben Ward | Preliminary round | 1
| 16 | 86.43 |- |align="left"| Colin McGarry | Preliminary round | 1
| 36 | 84.71 |- |align="left"| Mohd Latif Sapup | Preliminary round | 1
| 141 | 82.78 |- |align="left"| Andree Welge | Preliminary round | 1
| 91 | 79.65 |- |align="left"| Gino Vos | Preliminary round | 1
| 32 | 79.45 |- |align="left"| Ian Moss | Preliminary round | 1
| 118 | 78.63 |- |align="left"| Paul Lim | Preliminary round | 1
| 58 | 75.26 |- |align="left"| Dennis Lindskjold | Preliminary round | 1
| 2 | 74.30
Representation from different countries This table shows the number of players by country in the World Championship, the total number including the preliminary round.
ENG NED AUS SCO WAL GER BEL NIR AUT DEN CAN USA SPA HKG JPN MAS NZL RSA SIN FIN Total Final 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 Semis 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 Quarters 4 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 8 Round 3 7 2 1 3 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 16 Round 2 14 3 3 4 2 0 1 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 32 Round 1 32 5 4 4 3 2 2 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 0 1 64 Prelim. 3 1 0 0 0 1 0 1 1 2 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 16 Total 34 6 4 4 3 3 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 72
Broadcasting
The tournament was available in the following countries on these channels:
CountryChannel United Kingdom Sky SportsBBC Radio 5 Live (final only) Czech Republic Hungary Romania Slovakia Sport TV (Sport 1 and Sport 2) Germany Sport1/Sport1+ Ireland Sky Sports Middle East OSN Netherlands RTL 7 Australia Italy Fox Sports New Zealand Sky Sport
Sky Sports also showed the semi-finals and final in 3D in the United Kingdom.
References
External links Official site PDC netzone - results & schedule Darts at skysports.com