2007 Stan James World Matchplay | |||
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Tournament information | |||
Dates | 22–28 July 2007 | ||
Venue | Winter Gardens | ||
Location | Blackpool | ||
Country | England | ||
Organisation(s) | PDC | ||
Format | Legs | ||
Prize fund | £200,000 | ||
Winner's share | £50,000 | ||
High checkout | 170 Kevin Painter | ||
Champion(s) | |||
James Wade | |||
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The 2007 Stan James World Matchplay was the 14th annual staging of the World Matchplay darts tournament by the Professional Darts Corporation. It was held at its traditional home, the Winter Gardens, Blackpool, between 22 and 28 July 2007. James Wade won his first major title, defeating Terry Jenkins 18–7 in the final.
Defending and eight times champion, Phil Taylor suffered a semi-final defeat to Jenkins, meaning that he had surrendered both the World Championship and World Matchplay titles for the first time since the PDC began in 1994. Raymond van Barneveld, who went into this event having won the first three Sky TV majors of the year (World Championship, UK Open and Las Vegas Desert Classic) saw his hopes of the clean-sweep evaporate with a quarter-final defeat to Adrian Lewis. Barneveld was making his debut in the event having failed to qualify in 2006.
Both Lewis and Jenkins suffered hangovers from their victories over the two favourites as they lost their next matches - with James Wade capitalising. He beat Lewis in the semi-final and Jenkins in the final. Wade became the youngest winner of a PDC televised title at the age of 24 and also rose to number three in the world rankings.