2022 PDC World Darts Championship
29th PDC World Darts Championship / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The 2022 PDC World Darts Championship (officially referred to as the 2021/22 William Hill World Darts Championship[1]) was the 29th World Championship organised by the Professional Darts Corporation since it separated from the now-defunct British Darts Organisation. It took place at the Alexandra Palace in London from 15 December 2021 to 3 January 2022.
2022 William Hill World Darts Championship | |||
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Tournament information | |||
Dates | 15 December 2021 – 3 January 2022[1] | ||
Venue | Alexandra Palace | ||
Location | London | ||
Country | England | ||
Organisation(s) | PDC | ||
Format | Sets Final – first to 7 sets | ||
Prize fund | £2,500,000 | ||
Winner's share | £500,000 | ||
Nine-dart finish | William Borland Darius Labanauskas Gerwyn Price | ||
High checkout | |||
Champion(s) | |||
Peter Wright | |||
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Gerwyn Price was the defending champion, after he defeated Gary Anderson 7–3 to claim his first World Championship in 2021. However, he lost 5–4 to Michael Smith in the quarter-finals.[2] For the first time since 2006, no players from outside the United Kingdom reached the quarter-final stage.
Three nine-dart finishes were made in the tournament, the most in a single PDC World Championship.[3][4] William Borland became the first ever player in a televised tournament to hit a nine-dart finish in a deciding leg, against Bradley Brooks in the first round. Darius Labanauskas then hit the second of the tournament the following day, in his first-round match against Mike De Decker.[5] Price hit his first televised nine-dart finish, and the third of the tournament, against Michael Smith in the quarter-finals.[4]
Three players were forced to withdraw in the third round due to testing positive for COVID-19; on 27 December, Vincent van der Voort was forced to withdraw from the tournament ahead of his match against James Wade,[6] three-time World Champion Michael van Gerwen withdrew the following day from his match against Chris Dobey,[7] and Dave Chisnall withdrew on 29 December before his match against Luke Humphries.[8]
Peter Wright won the World Championship for the second time in his career, defeating Michael Smith 7–5 in the final.[9]
The event would be the final event of William Hill's sponsorship deal with the PDC, as the organisation had announced on 18 July 2021 that it had reached a multi-year, multi-tournament sponsorship deal with British car sales company Cazoo for all of its events from 2022 and onwards, including the World Championship.[10]