With two and a half months to go before the opening match of the World Championship on December 15th, the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) season is entering its home straight. With the World Grand Prix starting on October 3rd, the European Darts Championship, the Grand Slam and the Players Championship Finals, there are four major tournaments within eight weeks, a total of twelve events.
Plenty of prize money will be awarded at the top events in Leicester, Dortmund, Wolverhampton and Minehead, giving plenty of reason to play your way onto or off the 32-name seeding list. The crowd is even tighter in the ProTour ranking list, which is used to award 32 more World Cup tickets.
With Gabriel Clemens and Martin Schindler, two Germans are currently seeded for the second round of the World Cup at Alexandra Palace. According to the current status, Clemens would meet Gary Anderson in a possible third round, UK Open champion Danny Noppert could wait in the round of 16, just like in the first round of the World Grand Prix on Tuesday (live on DAZN and Sport1).
After a win in round two, Martin Schindler would once again have to deal with Gerwyn Price or Peter Wright, after which the Portuguese Jose de Sousa or Krzysztof Ratajski from Poland could wait.
In addition to a third German World Cup starter, who will be determined among the best national players in the Super League in November, at least Florian Hempel, who made it to the third round in his World Cup debut last year, can still qualify for a direct qualification hope for the ProTour ranking. The Cologne native is currently separated by 4750 pounds and twelve places from the desired 32nd place.
Hempel’s focus is therefore on the five remaining Players Championship tournaments from October 20th to 23rd and November 4th in Barnsley. There it is for him about the ticket to the Ally Pally. He failed to qualify for the Gibraltar Darts Trophy on October 14th.
Internationally, a dozen players can still have legitimate hopes of slipping into the top 32, including Ryan Joyce, who was a World Cup quarter-finalist four years ago. Devon Petersen, Jeffrey De Zwaan, John Henderson, Darius Labanauskas and William Borland, who delivered one of the memorable World Cup moments last year with a spectacular nine-darter, would not be there according to the current status. Familiar faces such as Steve Beaton, Ian White, Luke Woodhouse and Jermaine Wattimena will still have to defend their narrow lead in the ranking.
As every year, those who didn’t make the top 64 after the Players Championship Finals on November 27, the last tournament on the tour, still have one last chance. The last World Cup tickets will be awarded at the PDPA qualifier on November 28th. Max Hopp and Ricardo Pietreczko will have to hope for the same if they don’t take their first chance in the Super League.
Order of Merit (32 participants)
1. Gerwyn Price (Wales) £1,104,250
2. Peter Wright (Scotland) 1,075,500
3. Michael van Gerwen (Netherlands) 660,750
4. Michael Smith (England) 549.750
5. James Wade (England) 426.250
6. Rob Cross (England) 413.250
7. Jonny Clayton (Wales) 405.250
8. Danny Noppert (Netherlands) 401,000
9. Gary Anderson (Scotland) 398,750
10. Luke Humphries (England) 395.500
11. Dave Chisnall (England) 328.750
12. Ryan Searle (England) 320.250
13. Joe Cullen (England) 318.750
14. Dimitri Van den Bergh (Belgium) 317,000
15. Jose de Sousa (Portugal) 315,500
16. Nathan Aspinall (England) 314.250
17. Dirk van Duijvenbode (Netherlands) 298.750
18. Krzysztof Ratajski (Poland) 287,000
19. Stephen Bunting (England) 266.000
20. Damon Heta (Australia) 242,500
21. Brendan Dolan (Northern Ireland) 220,500
22. Callan Rydz (England) 219,750
23. Daryl Gurney (Nordirland) 218.250
24. Gabriel Clemens (Germany) 214,500
25. Chris Dobey (England) 187.500
26. Mervyn King (England) 179.750
27. Vincent van der Voort (Netherlands) 168,000
28. Ross Smith (England) 152.250
29. Kim Huybrechts (Belgium) 145.250
30. Mensur Suljovic (Austria) 144,750
31. Martin Schindler (Germany) 138,500
32. Adrian Lewis (England) 128.500
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33. Ian White (England) 123.000
34. Simon Whitlock (Australia) 122.250
35. Madras Razma (Latland) 117.750
36. William O‘Connor (Ireland) 115,250
37. Ricky Evans (England) 104.250
38. Devon Petersen (South Africa) 103,000
39. Ryan Joyce (England) 98.750
40. Martijn Kleermaker (Netherlands) 98,000
…
58. Florian Hempel (Germany) 67,500
…
74. Max Hopp (Germany) 42,500
Pro Tour Order of Merit (32 participants)
1. Andrew Gilding (England) 58.500
2. Martin Lukeman (England) 48.250
3. Madars Razma (Latvia) 47,000
4. Rowby-John Rodriguez (Austria) 42,250
5. Josh Rock (Nordirland) 37.000
6. Scott Williams (England) 35.750
7. Jim Williams (Wales) 34.750
8. Ryan Meikle (England) 32.500
9. Ricky Evans (England) 31.750
10. Keane Barry (Ireland) 30,750
11. Keegan Brown (England) 30.500
12. Simon Whitlock (Australia) 29,000
13. Karel Sedlacek (Czech Republic) 28,500
14. Danny Jansen (Netherlands) 27,000
15. Ritchie Edhouse (England) 26.000
16. Jamie Hughes (England) 25.500
17. William O‘Connor (Ireland) 25,250
18. Niels Zonneveld (Netherlands) 25,000
19. Matt Campbell (Canada) 25,000
20. Raymond van Barneveld (Netherlands) 24.750
21. Cameron Menzies (Scotland) 23,500
22. Boris Krcmar (Croatia) 23.250
23. Ian White (England) 23.250
24. Luke Woodhouse (England) 23.000
25. Jermaine Wattimena (Niederlande) 23,000
26. Martijn Kleermaker (Netherlands) 22.250
27. Mickey Mansell (Nordirland) 21.750
28. Alan Soutar (Schottland) 21,500
29. Steve Beaton (England) 21.250
30. Geert Nentjes (Netherlands) 21,250
31. Adam Gawlas (Tschechien) 21,250
32. John O‘Shea (Irland) 21.250
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33. Jeffrey De Zwaan (Netherlands) 20,000
34. Scott Waites (England) 19.250
35. Ryan Joyce (England) 19.000
…
44. Florian Hempel (Germany) 16,500
…
55. Max Hopp (Germany) 13,000
…
67. Ricardo Pietreczko (Deutschland) 11,250
…
70. Lukas Little (Germany) 10,750
…
91. Dragutin Horvat (Deutschland) 6,000
