2009 World Matchplay
The 2009 Stan James World Matchplay was the 16th annual staging of the World Matchplay tournament by the Professional Darts Corporation. The tournament took place from 19–26 July 2009. As usual it was staged at the Winter Gardens in Blackpool. World number one Phil Taylor successfully defended his title, beating Terry Jenkins in the final to win his tenth World Matchplay. Prize fund. The prize fund was increased to £400,000, which was £100,000 more than the last World Matchplay. Qualification. The qualification process for the World Matchplay differed this year. The top 16 in the  PDC Order of the Merit after the 2009 UK Open qualified automatically as the 16 seeds. The other 16 places would be made up of the 16 highest ranked players (not already in the top 16) from the 2009 Players Championship Order of Merit - decided by the various Player Championship events taking place on the PDC Pro Tour from January 2009 - the cutoff point was the Las Vegas Players Championship just before the 2009 Las Vegas Desert Classic. Thus, the participants were: