| World Grand Prix | |
| Tournament information | |
|---|---|
| Venue | Citywest Hotel |
| Location | Dublin |
| Country | Republic of Ireland |
| Established | 1998 |
| Organisation(s) | PDC |
| Format | Sets "double in, double out" |
| Prize Fund | £350,000 (2009) |
| Month(s) Played | October |
| Current champion(s) | |
| Phil Taylor | |
The World Grand Prix is a PDC darts tournament held in Dublin each October. Its original venue was the Casino Rooms in Rochester, Kent in 1998 and 1999 and then for one year only in 2000 at the Crosbie Cedars Hotel in Rosslare, County Wexford. In 2001 the tournament moved further north to its current home at the Citywest Hotel in Dublin. The event replaced the earlier World Pairs tournament which ran from 1995 to 1997.
The Grand Prix was originally sponsored by bookmakers Paddy Power before Sky Bet took over in 2004. The subsidiary Sky Poker followed as the tournament's sponsor in 2008 and 2009. In 2010, online gambling company Bodog became the event's title sponsor and in 2011 PartyPoker.com took over as sponsor.
Although he has dominated the event with ten title wins, Phil Taylor has been knocked out of the World Grand Prix three times in the first round. In 2001, he lost 2-1 to qualifier Kevin Painter, in 2004 by 2 sets to 0 to Andy Callaby, and in 2007 he went down 2-0 in sets to Adrian Gray.
The current Champion is Phil Taylor, who defeated Brendan Dolan 6-3 in the final on 9 October 2011.
Contents |
This tournament has shorter opening rounds, which can lead to some surprise results, and players must commence and finish each leg on a double including the option of the bull.
There have been several different formats for the competition, the 1998 event was played in a matchplay format of legs rather than sets. The following year a group stage was introduced, where there were only four seeded players for the event, and all 4 reached the semi-finals, which is quite unusual in darts tournament history. The group stages were replaced again with straight knock-out for 2000. The present format has been in place since 2003, when the 2nd round was extended from best-of-3 to best-of-5 sets.
| Sponsor | Years |
|---|---|
| None | 1998 - 2001 |
| Paddy Power | 2002 - 2003 |
| Sky Bet | 2004 - 2007 |
| Sky Poker | 2008 - 2009 |
| Bodog | 2010 |
| PartyPoker.com | 2011 - present |
| Venue | Years |
|---|---|
| Casino Rooms, Rochester, Kent | 1998 - 1999 |
| Crosbie Cedars Hotel, Rosslare | 2000 |
| Citywest Hotel, Dublin | 2001 - present |
The list of finals:[1]
| Year | Winner | Score | Runner Up |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1998 | Phil Taylor | 13-8 (legs) | Rod Harrington |
| 1999 | Phil Taylor | 6-1 (sets) | Shayne Burgess |
| 2000 | Phil Taylor | 6-1 (sets) | Shayne Burgess |
| 2001 | Alan Warriner | 8-2 (sets) | Roland Scholten |
| 2002 | Phil Taylor | 7-3 (sets) | John Part |
| 2003 | Phil Taylor | 7-2 (sets) | John Part |
| 2004 | Colin Lloyd | 7-3 (sets) | Alan Warriner |
| 2005 | Phil Taylor 90.74 | 7-1 (sets) | Colin Lloyd 82.05 |
| 2006 | Phil Taylor 88.24 | 7-4 (sets) | Terry Jenkins 82.51 |
| 2007 | James Wade 86.03 | 6-3 (sets) | Terry Jenkins 84.58 |
| 2008 | Phil Taylor 97.81 | 6-2 (sets) | Raymond van Barneveld 90.42 |
| 2009 | Phil Taylor 97.07 | 6-3 (sets) | Raymond van Barneveld 86.62 |
| 2010 | James Wade 88.92 | 6-3 (sets) | Adrian Lewis 89.33 |
| 2011 | Phil Taylor | 6-3 (sets) | Brendan Dolan |
As of 2011:
| Player | Won | Runner-up |
|---|---|---|
| Phil Taylor | 10 | 0 |
| James Wade | 2 | 0 |
| Colin Lloyd | 1 | 1 |
| Alan Warriner | 1 | 1 |
| Shayne Burgess | 0 | 2 |
| John Part | 0 | 2 |
| Terry Jenkins | 0 | 2 |
| Raymond van Barneveld | 0 | 2 |
| Rod Harrington | 0 | 1 |
| Roland Scholten | 0 | 1 |
| Adrian Lewis | 0 | 1 |
| Brendan Dolan | 0 | 1 |
The World Pairs event which preceded the introduction of this event was held between 1995 and 1997.[2]
| Year | Winners | Score | Runners Up | Venue |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1995 | Eric Bristow Dennis Priestley |
14-9 (legs) | Keith Deller Jamie Harvey |
unknown, Ayr |
| 1996 | Bob Anderson Phil Taylor |
18-15 (legs) | Chris Mason Steve Raw |
Willows Variety Centre, Salford |
| 1997 | Raymond van Barneveld Roland Scholten |
18-15 (legs) | Richie Burnett Rod Harrington |
Butlin's South Coast World, Bognor Regis |
The World Grand Prix has been broadcast in the UK by Sky Sports since the first tournament.
|
|||||
|
||||||||||||||