2007 World Matchplay

Template:Infobox individual darts tournament The 2007 Stan James World Matchplay was the 14th annual staging of the World Matchplay darts tournament by the Professional Darts Corporation. It was held at its traditional home, the Winter Gardens, Blackpool, between 22 and 28 July 2007. James Wade won his first major title, defeating Terry Jenkins 18–7 in the final.

Defending and eight times champion, Phil Taylor suffered a semi-final defeat to Jenkins, meaning that he had surrendered both the World Championship and World Matchplay titles for the first time since the PDC began in 1994. Raymond van Barneveld, who went into this event having won the first three Sky TV majors of the year (World Championship, UK Open and Las Vegas Desert Classic) saw his hopes of the clean-sweep evaporate with a quarter-final defeat to Adrian Lewis. Barneveld was making his debut in the event having failed to qualify in 2006.

Both Lewis and Jenkins suffered hangovers from their victories over the two favourites as they lost their next matches - with James Wade capitalising. He beat Lewis in the semi-final and Jenkins in the final. Wade became the youngest winner of a PDC televised title at the age of 24 and also rose to number three in the world rankings.

Prize fund

Position (no. of players)		Prize money (Total: £200,000)
Winner	(1)	£50,000
Runner-Up	(1)	£20,000
Semi-finalists	(2)	£10,000
Quarter-finalists	(4)	£7,500
Second round	(8)	£5,000
First round	(16)	£2,500
Nine-dart finish	(0)	£10,000

Qualification

PDC Top 16

1. Template:Flagicon Phil Taylor (semi-finals)
2. Template:Flagicon Raymond van Barneveld (quarter-finals)
3. Template:Flagicon Colin Lloyd (first round)
4. Template:Flagicon Peter Manley (first round)
5. Template:Flagicon Terry Jenkins (runner-up)
6. Template:Flagicon Dennis Priestley (second round)
7. Template:Flagicon Adrian Lewis (semi-finals)
8. Template:Flagicon Wayne Mardle (second round)
9. Template:Flagicon Roland Scholten (quarter-finals)
10. Template:Flagicon Andy Hamilton (second round)
11. Template:Flagicon James Wade (winner)
12. Template:Flagicon John Part (second round)
13. Template:Flagicon Ronnie Baxter (quarter-finals)
14. Template:Flagicon Andy Jenkins (second round)
15. Template:Flagicon Barrie Bates (second round)
16. Template:Flagicon Kevin Painter (second round)

PDPA Players Championship qualifiers

1. Template:Flagicon Chris Mason (first round)
2. Template:Flagicon Mark Dudbridge (first round)
3. Template:Flagicon Mark Walsh (first round)
4. Template:Flagicon Colin Osborne (first round)
5. Template:Flagicon Denis Ovens (first round)
6. Template:Flagicon Wayne Jones (first round)
7. Template:Flagicon Alan Tabern (first round)
8. Template:Flagicon Wes Newton (first round)
9. Template:Flagicon Andy Smith (first round)
10. Template:Flagicon Alan Warriner-Little (first round)
11. Template:Flagicon Mick McGowan (first round)
12. Template:Flagicon Mervyn King (quarter-finals)
13. Template:Flagicon Michael van Gerwen (second round)
14. Template:Flagicon Adrian Gray (first round)
15. Template:Flagicon Steve Beaton (first round)
16. Template:Flagicon Bob Anderson (first round)

Television coverage

Sky Sports broadcast the event live in the UK & Ireland for the 14th year running. The final between Wade & Jenkins achieved viewing figures of 183,000 - although that was surpassed by the quarter-finals on Thursday (188,000) and the semi-finals on Friday received the highest viewing figures with 240,000 (the third highest-rated programme on Sky Sports 1 for that week)

References

• Planetdarts Netzone Results and reports from tournament