THE FINAL! 🏆 Nathan Aspinall and Jonny Clayton will meet in the 2023 @Betfred World Matchplay final on Sunday! 🕣 Tune in from 2000 - you won't want to miss it! #WMDarts
The final of the 2023 World Matchplay will go Sunday night between Nathan Aspinall and Jonny Clayton. It is the first time since 2007 that a former world champion is not in the final of this tournament.
There is going to be a new name on the Phil Taylor Trophy anyway, as Aspinall and Clayton both have not been in the final match in Blackpool before. Both players, however, already have a pretty full record. Aspinall stands at seven PDC titles, including the 2019 UK Open. Clayton even has six major titles to his name and won a total of 14 PDC titles in his career.
Aspinall made it to the final of this World Matchplay by dealing with Krzysztof Ratajski (10-7), Danny Noppert (11-9), Chris Dobey (16-12) and Joe Cullen (17-9). Clayton proved too strong for Gabriel Clemens (10-8), Dimitri van den Bergh (11-6), Ryan Searle (16-12) and Luke Humphries (17-15).
Zooming in on the statistics of the two finalists, they both excelled in some discipline. Aspinall threw more 180 scores than Clayton (37 to 18) and has a higher tournament average (97.71 and 96.88), in contrast, Clayton impressed more on finishes. 'The Ferret' has a significantly higher finishing percentage (52.9 percent to 40.6 percent) and threw many more 100+ finishes (10 to 4). Scoring-wise, Aspinall is thus better, but the Englishman must prevent Clayton from getting the opportunity to finish.
Aspinall and Clayton met 12 times before in an official match. Six times Clayton won, five times the win went to Aspinall, while they shared the points once during the 2021 Premier League. The last showdown between them was won by Aspinall.
The tournament will be broadcast in full on Sky Sports going between Action and Main Event.
After the World Darts Championship, the World Matchplay is the ranking tournament with the largest prize pool at the PDC. A total of 800,000 pounds of prize money is up for grabs at this event.
All 32 participants are guaranteed £10,000 in prize money. This could eventually add up to a check of as much as £200,000 for the darter who gets to lift the Phil Taylor Trophy on Sunday, July 23.