A recovered former dominator, two child prodigies, three Germans with World Cup experience. These are just a few of the 96 participants in the 2023 World Darts Championship. The winter highlight starts today in London’s Alexandra Palace.
What some football fans are spoiling for the World Cup this year has been a tradition for darts fans for years. The most important tournament of the year takes place in winter. 93 male and 3 female players will compete from this Thursday until the final on January 3rd in “Ally Pally”, the place of pilgrimage for thousands of darts fans. The World Cup does not skimp on eccentric players and crazy stories this year either. One could also say that the Darts World Cup 2023 (because of the final date in the new year) reports back with a colorful bang from the slight corona depression of the past few years.
At the 2021 World Cup, a few fans were only allowed into the hall on the first of 16 tournament days, after which the broadcasting TV station played in a fan atmosphere to at least create a little atmosphere. The 2022 World Cup, on the other hand, had more atmosphere to offer: Vaccinated, recovered or tested fans were allowed into the Alexandra Palace. That also applied to the players. The tournament started strong and ended with Peter Wright’s dramatic final win over Michael Smith, but the event lost several players to the virus along the way. Among other things, superstar Michael van Gerwen left the current competition this way and then spoke of a “big corona bomb”.
That won’t happen this year. Corona rules are history, that applies to fans and players alike.
Michael van Gerwen dominated the year 2022 on the tournament circuit of the professional darts organization PDC. Premier League in May, World Matchplay in July, World Grand Prix in October, Players Championship Finals in November. The Dutchman won several of the most important tournaments after the World Cup. And that despite the fact that he had to undergo hand surgery the day after his Premier League victory in Berlin. “I’m very happy that I did that because I feel a hundred percent better now than before,” van Gerwen told Sport1.
For van Gerwen, 2022 marked the end of a long crisis. “I had to go back to basics and rebuild my game from there,” the 2014, 2017 and 2019 world champion is quoted as saying. The Dutchman is by no means as dominant as he was a few years ago, but that’s not because of him, but because of the ever-stronger competition.
The third in the world rankings has identified number one in the ranking as his main competitor. Gerwyn Price, the ex-rugby professional from Wales, is aiming for his second world title after 2021. But this year the 37-year-old has only won one major tournament. “Six months ago my form was at rock bottom and my confidence was gone, but I think I’ve got my form back. My confidence is back too. And that’s what it’s all about,” Price told Sport1.
Michael Smith also sees great chances of winning the title. The Englishman has already been in the World Cup final twice, but has not yet won the tournament, which is worth the equivalent of 2.9 million euros. For years, Smith was the one who plays great, but in the end regularly fails in big finals due to weak nerves. Until he was able to defeat the curse in November of this year: Smith won the Grand Slam of Darts and can now finally call himself a major winner. It is quite possible that in a good three weeks he will also be able to call himself world champion.
The question remains as to what the defending champion can achieve. Peter Wright, the 53-year-old Scot with the Mohawk haircut, could draw level with Michael van Gerwen after winning the title. Wright has won two of the last three world championships (2020 and 2022). “The World Cup is my favorite tournament. I want to win it many more times,” Wright said in the darts podcast “Checkout” just before the tournament started. But the two-time champion enters the race at most as a co-favourite. His performance over the year was too fluctuating. And then there were health problems. In August he had an operation because he had problems with gallstones. Wright had to miss several tournaments.
Wright’s wife and manager Joanne also had to be hospitalized afterwards. Major back surgery that didn’t go to plan worried the Wrights. The reigning world champion was a shadow of himself at the Grand Slam of Darts in November and couldn’t concentrate on the game. He was eliminated in the preliminary round and even skipped the Players Championship Finals, the World Cup dress rehearsal, a week later. “Now luckily the boss is fine again. We still have to be careful, but Joanne is over the worst,” Wright said on the podcast. It is quite possible that Wright can now play freely.
Luke Humphries is one of the rising stars of the year. The 27-year-old Englishman was in the quarter-finals of the World Cup in 2019 and 2020, but Humphries only managed to break through to the top of the world this year. “Cool Hand Luke” won four European Tour events. The winning streak made him fifth in the world rankings, which are calculated based on the prize money earned over the past two years.
Just in time for the most important tournament of the year, Rob Cross has also returned in strong form. At the World Cup dress rehearsal at the end of November, the trained electrician made it into the final. Year after year, the World Championships are Cross’s return to the place of his greatest triumph. In 2018, when Cross competed at the Worlds for the first time ever, “Voltage” not only made it to the final, but also beat darts’ greatest legend of all time, Phil Taylor, in his final match.
This year, Danny Noppert has registered as one of the world’s best. Completely surprisingly, the Dutchman won the UK Open in spring. The 31-year-old’s first major title brought Noppert into the ranks of top players. More good results followed, at least a quarter-final entry is possible at the World Cup.
Nathan Aspinall played consistently well too. The 31-year-old Englishman reached the finals of the World Grand Prix and Grand Slam. Aspinall is hard to beat even on weaker days, fighting one of the strongest players of all.
In the last two World Cup tournaments, Gary Anderson also played for the title until the very end. The world champion from 2015 and 2016 was in the final and semi-final. Outside of the highlights of the year, however, the “Flying Scotsman” was completely invisible. If Anderson cannot even begin to repeat his entry into the final two years ago, there is a risk of a total crash in the world rankings. Rumors of an imminent end to his career have been circulating in the darts world for a long time.
Raymond van Barneveld has already retired once, but has been back on the tour for two years. Last year, when the World Cup came back, the five-time world champion from the Netherlands was eliminated early. A third round match between “Barney” and Gerwyn Price is looming this year. Most recently, van Barneveld won twice against the world rankings within a few days.
Josh Rock is just at the beginning of his career. The Northern Irishman is 21 years old, was completely unknown a year ago and miles away from the Darts World Cup. Then “Rocky” qualified for the professional tour out of nowhere and had an unprecedented debut year, including a nine-darter in the Grand Slam against Michael van Gerwen. Rock is described as a child prodigy, quite a few believe that he is capable of winning the World Cup right away.
The second prodigy in the tournament is Beau Greaves. The 18-year-old is already the best player in the world. No other woman can hold a candle to her. Greaves competed in eight Women’s Series tournaments and won eight. At the World Cup she plays in the first round against the Irish William O’Connor, in case of a victory the German Gabriel Clemens would wait.
If Greaves wins a game in London, she would do the same for Fallon Sherrock. The 28-year-old Englishwoman became the ‘Queen of the Palace’ at the 2020 World Cup when she became the first woman to defeat a man at the World Cup and was only eliminated in round three. After the memorable victories, Sherrock became one of the faces of the professional darts organization PDC. However, this has not done your game any good. Sherrock’s form has suffered in recent months. In terms of sport, she did not succeed in qualifying for the World Championships, the PDC gave her a starting place shortly before the start of the tournament and justified this with her victory at the Women’s World Matchplay in July.
Lisa Ashton is the third woman to qualify for the Darts World Cup. The 52-year-old is hoping for her first win, but is clearly an outsider in round one against young Englishman Ryan Meikle.
Year after year, after the British, Germany is the strongest fan base in Alexandra Palace. It’s different with the players. Three Germans represent the German colors in the “Ally Pally”. But no one really thinks capable of a bigger World Championship run. Gabriel Clemens, number 25 in the world and thus the best German, was not in good shape recently. Even at the start, things could get complicated against O’Connor or prodigy Greaves. If he wins his first game, the round of 16 seems possible thanks to a favorable draw.
Martin Schindler has the best form among the Germans. The world number 29. is also set for the second round, but will have to deal with the not to be underestimated Martin Lukeman there. If Schindler advances, Michael Smith threatens in round three. “I really want to win my first game, and then I’ll be able to beat Smith if this match comes up,” said the 26-year-old confidently in the “Checkout” podcast.
Already in round 1 Florian Hempel starts the tournament. The man from Cologne by choice sensationally reached the third round at his first World Cup last year. Back then, he defeated world number five, Dimitri Van den Bergh. This year he first meets Keegan Brown. “The draw is okay, it will be a 50-50 match,” says Hempel in advance. In the event of a win, Luke Humphries, fifth in the world rankings, would be waiting.
For the first time in the history of the Darts World Cup, a Ukrainian will also be there. Vladyslav Omelchenko, a 47-year-old miner from Zelenskyi’s hometown of Kryvyi Rih, has won a first-ever Ukrainian qualifying tournament in Kyiv. Normally a qualifying event is played in Russia every year, but this was not held this year due to the war of aggression against the Ukraine by the PDC.
For years he was the best German darts player, but now he is not there for the second time and has to worry about the continuation of his professional career: Max Hopp did not qualify for the highlight of the year again. The “Maximiser” is still there in London, he will analyze the tournament for Sport1 from the hot phase after the Christmas break. “I hope that moderator Jana Wosnitza and I will cut a similarly good figure as Esther Sedlaczek and Bastian Schweinsteiger at the World Cup,” said Hopp in an interview with Sport1.
Speaking of the World Cup: The desert tournament in Qatar causes an overlap. Because the PDC has made provision for the possibility that England will play either the third place game or the final, the game dates on December 17th and 18th have been adjusted. The afternoon sessions at the Darts World Cup start earlier on both days, the evening games an hour later. After England’s exit in the quarter-finals, that would no longer have been necessary.