World Darts Championship Field Confirmed

The field for the World Darts Championship has been confirmed. Michael van Gerwen is the top seed and defender of the title at the Alexandra Palace. The top 32 players from the PDC Order of Merit, following the completion of the Players Championship Finals in Minehead on Sunday, qualify by right alongside 16 qualifiers from the one-year ProTour Order of Merit. They are joined in the first round draw by eight of the international qualifiers, with the remaining 16 players taking part in the preliminary round. Reigning World Champion and runaway world number one Michael van Gerwen will head the 32 seeded players for Monday evening's first round draw, which will be made live on Sky Sports News. UK Open champion Peter Wright is the second seed, with two-time World Champion Gary Anderson - last year's beaten finalist - the third seed and World Grand Prix winner Daryl Gurney the fourth seed. Austria's Mensur Suljovic is seeded fifth ahead of the legendary 16-time World Champion Phil Taylor, who will be seeded sixth for his final World Championship ahead of retirement. Adrian Lewis, the 2011 and 2012 World Champion, is seeded seventh, with Dave Chisnall eighth, 2007 World Champion Raymond van Barneveld ninth and Australian star Simon Whitlock seeded tenth. James Wade, Jelle Klaasen, Michael Smith, Benito van de Pas, Alan Norris and Gerwyn Price complete the top 16 seeds, while Rob Cross will make his World Championship debut as the number 20 seed following a remarkable first year on the circuit. Justin Pipe's run to the semi-finals of the Players Championship Finals has moved him up to 27th in the rankings - creating a potential second round tie with Taylor. Jonny Clayton's achievement in reaching his first TV final at the Players Championship Finals has seen him break into the world's top 32 for the first time as he returns to Alexandra Palace as the 31st seed. Clayton's progress knocked Vincent van der Voort out of the world's top 32, although the Dutchman qualifies through the ProTour Order of Merit positions. Richard North, Peter Jacques, Martin Schindler and Steve Lennon will all make their World Championship debuts at Alexandra Palace after qualifying through the ProTour rankings. New World Youth Champion Dimitri Van den Bergh and former World Championship finalist Kevin Painter were also amongst the ProTour Order of Merit qualifiers, with the latter holding on to the final spot. The 72-player field will be completed by three players to come through the PDPA Qualifier on Monday, with the winner to go into the first round and the runner-up and third-placed player going into the preliminary round. 1 Michael van Gerwen 2 Peter Wright 3 Gary Anderson 4 Daryl Gurney 5 Mensur Suljovic 6 Phil Taylor 7 Adrian Lewis 8 Dave Chisnall 9 Raymond van Barneveld 10 Simon Whitlock 11 James Wade 12 Jelle Klaasen 13 Michael Smith 14 Benito van de Pas 15 Alan Norris 16 Gerwyn Price 17 Ian White 18 Kim Huybrechts 19 Joe Cullen 20 Rob Cross 21 Stephen Bunting 22 Mervyn King 23 Darren Webster 24 Kyle Anderson 25 Steve Beaton 26 Cristo Reyes 27 Justin Pipe 28 Robert Thornton 29 John Henderson 30 Mark Webster 31 Jonny Clayton 32 James Wilson 33 Richard North 34 Vincent van der Voort 35 Christian Kist 36 Ronny Huybrechts 37 Jermaine Wattimena 38 Steve West 39 Zoran Lerchbacher 40 Dimitri Van den Bergh 41 Jan Dekker 42 Keegan Brown 43 James Richardson 44 Peter Jacques 45 Martin Schindler 46 Chris Dobey 47 Steve Lennon 48 Kevin Painter 49 Devon Petersen 50 William O'Connor 51 Krzystof Ratajski 52 Kim Viljanen 53 Antonio Alcinas 54 Diogo Portela 55 Marko Kantele 56 PDPA Qualifier Winner 57 Jeff Smith/Luke Humphries 58 PDPA Qualifier Runner-Up/Alan Ljubic 59 Xiao Chen Zong/Bernie Smith 60 Kenny Neyens/PDPA Qualifier Third Place 61 Seigo Asada/Gordon Mathers 62 Kai Fan Leung/Paul Lim 63 Willard Bruguier/Cody Harris 64 Aleksandr Oreshkin/Kevin Munch Source: PDC.tv

Foto: Lawrence Lustig