The 2011 Ladbrokes.com World Darts Championship was the 18th 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 16 December 2010 and 3 January 2011. A total of 72 players took part, 16 of whom began at the preliminary round stage, with the eight winners joining the remaining 56 players in the first round proper.
Phil Taylor was the defending champion, having won the 2010 tournament. He was knocked out of the tournament at the quarter-final stage by Mark Webster, who in turn was defeated by Adrian Lewis in the semi-finals. Lewis went on to win the tournament, beating Gary Anderson 7–5 in the final to become only the fifth different PDC World Champion and the first to have won it without having won the rival BDO World Championship.[1]
The final between Adrian Lewis and Gary Anderson was notable for a number of reasons. It was the last match that Sid Waddell commentated on at the PDC World Darts Championship before his death in 2012. It was the first ever nine-dart finish in a PDC World Championship final, hit by Lewis in the third leg of the match and not accomplished again until Michael Smith did so in 2023 against Michael van Gerwen. And it was also the first PDC World Championship final involving 2 players that were playing in their first World final.
4-time PDC World Championship semi-finalist Wayne Mardle was a notable absentee, missing out on his first World Championship since 1999. The 3-time PDC World Championship finalist Peter Manley was also another notable absentee, having missed out in his first World Championship since qualifying every year from 1997 to 2010.
Format and qualifiers
The televised stages featured 72 players from a minimum of 22 countries. The top 32 players in the PDC Order of Merit on 29 November 2010 were seeded for the tournament.[2] They were joined by the 16 highest non qualified players in the Players Championship Order of Merit from events played on the PDC Pro Tour.
These 48 players were joined by two PDPA qualifiers (which were determined at a PDPA Qualifying event held in Derby on November 29, 2010), and 22 international players: the 4 highest names in the European Order of Merit not already qualified, the 2 highest names in the North American Order of Merit not already qualified and 16 further international qualifiers determined by the PDC and PDPA.
Some of the international players, such as the 4 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.
1^Rob Modra was unable to get a visa, so therefore, he was replaced by Kirk Shepherd, the next highest ranked player in the Players Championship Order of Merit.[3]
Prize money
The 2011 World Championship featured a prize fund of £1,000,000 – the same as in the previous year. The Third Place Playoff did not take place this year.
The winner of the eight preliminary-round matches joined 56 other players in the first round.
The first round draw took place on Tuesday 30 November live in the studio of Sky Sports News, and was conducted by 1983 World champion Keith Deller and Sky Sports darts' analyst and former World Matchplay champion, Rod Harrington.[4]
This table shows the number of players by country in the World Championship, the total number including the preliminary round.
ENG
NED
SCO
AUS
WAL
AUT
GER
NIR
NZL
CAN
SPA
RSA
USA
JPN
FIN
PHI
DEN
CRO
HKG
SWE
GUY
Total
Final
1
0
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
2
Semis
2
0
1
0
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
4
Quarters
4
2
1
0
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
8
Round 3
8
2
3
1
1
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
16
Round 2
21
2
3
2
1
1
0
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
1
0
0
0
0
32
Round 1
34
6
3
3
4
1
3
1
1
1
1
1
2
1
0
0
1
0
0
1
0
64
Prelim.
1
1
0
0
0
1
1
1
1
0
0
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
16
Total
35
6
3
3
4
2
3
2
1
1
1
1
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
72
Television coverage
Sky Sports broadcast all 72 matches live in high-definition in the United Kingdom. Dave Clark presented the coverage with analysis from Rod Harrington and Eric Bristow. They also commentated on matches along with Sid Waddell (in his final PDC World Darts Championship commentating appearance), John Gwynne, Nigel Pearson, Rod Studd and Stuart Pyke. This was the first PDC World Championship where Dave Lanning wasn't commentating having retired prior to the tournament. Due to the ill health of Harrington, Wayne Mardle replaced him post-Christmas and featured both commentating and co-presenting alongside Clark. Former England cricketer Andrew Flintoff was also a guest commentator twice during tournament. Interviews were handled by either Clark, Bristow or Studd.
In the Netherlands SBS6 broadcast all matches live through a live stream on the SBS6 website and Sport1 broadcast all the matches on television, both with commentary provided by Jacques Nieuwlaat and Leo Oldenburger. In Germany it was broadcast live on Sport1 with co-commentary provided by Roland Scholten, and in Australia it was broadcast live on Fox Sports.
