Dates 20–26 July Location Blackpool Organisation(s) PDC | Venue Winter Gardens Country England Format Legs | |
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The 2008 Stan James World Matchplay was the 15th annual staging of the tournament by the Professional Darts Corporation. The tournament took place from Sunday 20 July to Saturday 26 July. It was staged at the Winter Gardens in Blackpool. World number three, James Wade went into the competition as the defending champion and managed to reach the final for the third year in a row, but was defeated by top seed Phil Taylor 18-9 who won his ninth World Matchplay championship.
Contents
Prize fund
A total of £300,000 was available for the players, divided based on the following performances:
Winner - £60,000
Runner-up - £30,000
Semi-finalists - £17,000
Quarter-finalists - £12,000
Second round losers - £8,000
First round losers - £4,000
Nine-dart jackpot - £10,000
Qualification
The qualification process for the World Matchplay differed this year. The top 16 in the PDC Order of the Merit after the 2008 UK Open qualified automatically as the 16 seeds. The other 16 places would be made up of the 16 highest ranked players (not already in the top 16) from the 2008 Players Championship Order of Merit - decided by the various Player Championship events taking place on the PDC Pro Tour from January 2008 - the cutoff point was the Las Vegas Players Championship just before the 2008 Las Vegas Desert Classic.
Thus, the participants were:
Draw
Scores after player's names are three-dart averages (total points scored divided by darts thrown and multiplied by 3)
All games had to be won by 2 clear legs (e.g. in Rd 1 there could not be a 10-9 scoreline it had to be 11-9 or 10-8)
Round 1, Sunday 20 July
Evening Session
Round 1, Monday 21 July
Afternoon Session
Evening Session
Round 1 and 2, Tuesday 22 July
Afternoon Session
Evening Session
Round 2
Round 2, Wednesday 23 July
Afternoon Session
Evening Session
Quarter Finals, Thursday 24 July
Afternoon Session
Evening Session
Semi Finals, Friday 25 July
Final, Saturday 26 July
Phil Taylor
Taylor was reduced to tears upon winning the second most prestigious title in the PDC for the ninth time. He could not speak to interviewers and simply stood on the stage with a tearful look in his eyes. Later on, Taylor explained that he was overwhelmed by all of the support that he'd received, he also explained how he once thought he was never going to win the title ever again.
James Wade
Wade took his loss in good spirit. Despite not winning the tournament (as he did in 2007), he has now almost caught up with Raymond van Barneveld in the world rankings and is only £4000 behind him.