2018 UK Open

The2018CoralUK Openwas adartstournament staged by theProfessional Darts Corporation.It was the sixteenth year of the tournament where, following numerous regional qualifying heats throughout Britain, players competed in a single elimination tournament to be crowned champion. The tournament was held for the fifth time at theButlin's ResortinMinehead,England,between 2–4 March 2018, and has the nickname, "the FA Cup of darts" as a random draw was staged after each round until the final.

2018 Coral UK Open
Tournament information
Dates	2–4 March 2018
Venue	Butlin's Resort
Location	Minehead
Country	England
Organization(s)	PDC
Format	Legs Final – best of 21
Prize fund	£350,000
Winner's share	£70,000
High checkout	170Michael Rasztovits 170Daryl Gurney 170Steve West
Champion(s)
Gary Anderson
«2017 2019»

Peter Wrightwas the defending champion after defeatingGerwyn Price11–6 in the2017 final,but he lost in the third round toNathan Rafferty.

Gary Andersonbecame the UK Open champion for the first time, defeatingCorey Cadby(who was making his debut in the event) 11–7 in the final.

Michael van Gerwen's defeat toJeffrey de Zwaanin the third round was the first time van Gerwen had lost a live match onITVsince the2014 Players Championship Finals.Van Gerwen was unbeaten for 77 live matches (including the two live World Series events) on the channel during that period.

The tournament was severely affected by the extreme weather conditions caused byStorm Emmawhich had forced the complete cancellation of round five of the2018 Premier League Dartsthat had been due to be held inExeterthe evening before the tournament started. Eleven players who were due to play in the first, second and third rounds withdrew from the competition, and on 2 March, the unprecedented decision was taken byButlin'sto not allow any fans apart from the players relatives, guests and friends into the venue, resulting in the whole tournament being played behind closed doors.

The tournament was still televised live onITV4,but the Butlin's Skyline Pavilion Arena was unable to be used for the allocated Main Stage TV matches due to heavy snow and ice, so these matches were reallocated to the secondary Red's Bar stage.

Format and qualifiers

UK Open qualifiers

There were six qualifying events staged in February 2018 to determine the UK Open Order of Merit Table.The tournament winners were:

No.	Date	Venue	Winner	Score	Runner-up	Ref.
1	Friday 2 February	Robin Park Tennis Centre,Wigan	Michael van Gerwen	6– 3	Michael Smith
2	Saturday 3 February		Michael van Gerwen	6– 3	Darren Webster
3	Sunday 4 February		Michael Smith	6– 0	Zoran Lerchbacher
4	Friday 9 February		Gary Anderson	6– 2	Jeffrey de Zwaan
5	Saturday 10 February		Corey Cadby	6– 4	Rob Cross
6	Sunday 11 February		Krzysztof Ratajski	6– 4	Daryl Gurney

The tournament featured 128 players. The results of the six qualifiers shown above were collated into the UK Open Order Of Merit. The top 32 players in the Order of Merit received byes into the third round of the UK Open. Players ranked 33–64 received byes to the second round, while Players ranked 65–96 entered the main tournament in the first round. A further 32 players qualified via regional qualifying tournaments.

Top 32 in Order of Merit (receiving byes into third round)

1. Michael van Gerwen
2. Michael Smith
3. Krzysztof Ratajski
4. Corey Cadby
5. Rob Cross
6. Gary Anderson
7. Peter Wright
8. Daryl Gurney
9. Kim Huybrechts
10. Jeffrey de Zwaan
11. Darren Webster
12. Mervyn King
13. Zoran Lerchbacher*
14. John Henderson
15. Steve Beaton
16. Adrian Lewis
17. Steve West
18. Jamie Lewis
19. David Pallett
20. James Wade
21. Justin Pipe
22. Jelle Klaasen
23. Matthew Edgar
24. Jonny Clayton
25. Jamie Hughes
26. Simon Stevenson
27. Simon Whitlock
28. Dave Prins
29. Robert Thornton
30. Ian White
31. Martin Schindler
32. Kyle Anderson

Number 33–64 of the Order of Merit (receiving byes into second round)

33. Gerwyn Price
34. James Wilson
35. Robert Owen
36. Jason Lowe
37. Joe Cullen
38. Nathan Aspinall
39. Keegan Brown
40. Alan Norris
41. Danny Noppert
42. Nathan Rafferty
43. Vincent van der Voort
44. John Goldie*
45. David Evans
46. Richard North
47. Vincent Kamphuis
48. Jermaine Wattimena
49. Stephen Bunting
50. Stuart Kellett
51. José Justicia
52. Gabriel Clemens
53. Wayne Jones
54. Mike Norton
55. Carl Wilkinson
56. Andrew Gilding
57. Geert Nentjes
58. Toni Alcinas
59. Dave Chisnall
60. Raymond van Barneveld
61. Chris Dobey
62. James Richardson
63. Maik Langendorf*
64. Ted Evetts

Number 65–96 of the Order of Merit qualifiers (starting in first round)

65. Michael Rasztovits
66. Ron Meulenkamp
67. Kirk Shepherd
68. Richie Burnett
69. Ricky Evans
70. Mark Walsh
71. Cody Harris
72. William O'Connor*
73. Terry Jenkins
74. Chris Quantock
75. Michael Barnard
76. Bradley Brooks
77. Dirk van Duijvenbode
78. Ryan Meikle
79. Dimitri Van den Bergh
80. Paul Nicholson
81. Luke Humphries
82. Cristo Reyes
83. René Berndt**
84. René Eidams
85. Lee Evans
86. Ryan Harrington
87. Robert Rickwood
88. Mickey Mansell
89. Andy Jenkins
90. Benito van de Pas
91. Mick McGowan*
92. Darren Johnson
93. John Part
94. Prakash Jiwa
95. Adam Hunt
96. George Killington

** René Berndt dropped out of the tournament because of health reasons.

Rileys qualifiers (starting in first round)

32 amateur players qualified from 28 Rileys Sports Bar qualifiers held across the UK between 20 January and 18 February.

• Andrew Davidson* (GRE,20 January)
• Michael Burgoine(VIC,21 January)
• Joe Davis (VIC,21 January)
• Andrew Johnson (CHO,27 January)
• Jason Mold(NOR,27 January)
• Tony Mitchell(NOT,27 January)
• Ian Jopling(TWI,27 January)
• Mark Craddock (WOL,27 January)
• Liam Kelly (WOL,27 January)
• Benjamin McClelland (LEI,28 January)
• Mark Rice* (LIV,28 January)
• Paul Hogan(SBE,28 January)
• David Airey(CHE,3 February)
• Alex Roy(HAR,3 February)
• Chris Lacey* (SHE,3 February)
• Andy Hamilton(WOR,3 February)
• Craig Winstanley* (CHE,4 February)
• Harry Ward(COV,4 February)
• Simon Tate (GRE,4 February)
• Daniel Lee (SOL,4 February)
• Martin Atkins(CHO,10 February)
• Dan Read(TWI,11 February)
• Scott Robertson* (ABE,17 February)
• Martin Biggs (COV,17 February)
• Paul Whitworth(LIV,17 February)
• Darren Brown (NOR,17 February)
• Andy Hibbert(NOT,17 February)
• Darryl Pilgrim(VIC,18 February)
• John Scott (VIC,18 February)
• Andreas Hajimena (SBE,18 February)
• John Morris(WOL,18 February)
• Andrew Pullen (WOL,18 February)

* Due toStorm Emma,multiple players pulled out of the tournament.

Prize money

The prize fund stayed the same as last year, £350,000.

Stage(no. of players)		Prize money (Total: £350,000)
Winner	(1)	£70,000
Runner-up	(1)	£35,000
Semi-finalists	(2)	£17,500
Quarter-finalists	(4)	£11,500
Last 16(fifth round)	(8)	£6,500
Last 32(fourth round)	(16)	£3,500
Last 64(third round)	(32)	£1,750
Last 96(second round)	(32)	n/a
Last 128(first round)	(32)	n/a

Draw

(Note: Due to extreme weather all matches in the tournament were played behind closed doors)

Friday 2 March

First round (best of eleven legs)

Player	Score	Player		Player	Score	Player
Andrew Davidson (Q)*	w/o	Michael Burgoine(Q)		Darryl Pilgrim(Q)86.29	6–2	Ian Jopling (Q)70.81
René Eidams77.58	6–4	Andrew Johnson (Q)74.98		Benjamin McClelland (Q)68.35	4–6	David Airey(Q)78.30
Michael Barnard	w/o	Scott Robertson (Q)*		Chris Lacey (Q)*	w/o	Martin Biggs (Q)
Dimitri Van den Bergh87.70	3–6	Lee Evans88.62		Richie Burnett86.03	5–6	Ryan Harrington83.52
Dan Read (Q)73.72	5–6	Joe Davis(Q)77.26		Ricky Evans93.40	6–1	Andreas Hajimena (Q)72.39
Chris Quantock72.52	4–6	Bradley Brooks78.67		Dirk van Duijvenbode	w/o	Mick McGowan*
Terry Jenkins88.50	5–6	Paul Nicholson83.93		Cody Harris94.19	6–1	Tony Mitchell (Q)88.04
Kirk Shepherd85.21	6–4	Adam Hunt82.10		Craig Winstanley (Q)*	w/o	Mark Craddock (Q)
Andrew Pullen (Q)	w/o	Mark Rice (Q)*		William O'Connor*	w/o	Andy Hamilton(Q)
Michael Rasztovits82.33	6–3	Simon Tate (Q)78.62		Martin Atkins(Q)70.94	3–6	Paul Whitworth(Q)81.20
Luke Humphries94.93	6–0	Liam Kelly (Q)63.55		Paul Hogan(Q)80.18	6–5	Darren Brown (Q)92.88
Mark Walsh64.85	2–6	Alex Roy(Q)78.32		Cristo Reyes92.80	5–6	Benito van de Pas87.02
René Berndt**	w/o	Robert Rickwood		Ron Meulenkamp79.56	6–4	Andy Hibbert (Q)73.75
Harry Ward(Q)86.71	6–0	Daniel Lee (Q)71.59		Andy Jenkins82.85	4–6	George Killington84.59
John Part82.24	6–2	John Morris (Q)72.11		Prakash Jiwa75.08	5–6	Jason Mold(Q)78.47
Ryan Meikle74.13	6–5	Mickey Mansell75.82		Darren Johnson78.57	4–6	John Scott(Q)82.48

** René Berndt withdrew from the tournament because of health reasons.

Second round (best of eleven legs)

Player	Score	Player		Player	Score	Player
Nathan Rafferty94.56	6–3	Jason Mold (Q)86.93		Gerwyn Price93.40	6–2	James Wilson89.44
Jermaine Wattimena79.81	6–0	Andy Hamilton(Q)69.22		Maik Langendorf*	w/o	Michael Rasztovits
Vincent van der Voort81.29	6–3	Martin Biggs (Q)81.99		Toni Alcinas85.38	4–6	Alex Roy(Q)87.91
Mike Norton90.13	5–6	Raymond van Barneveld94.94		Ryan Meikle80.05	6–4	Mark Craddock (Q)73.79
Richard North78.85	5–6	Paul Nicholson84.22		Keegan Brown83.83	6–3	George Killington77.92
Chris Dobey97.67	6–5	Lee Evans91.48		Stephen Bunting82.50	6–2	Bradley Brooks73.28
Dave Chisnall96.05	6–2	René Eidams86.95		Geert Nentjes79.31	4–6	Darryl Pilgrim(Q)86.40
Stuart Kellett78.76	1–6	David Airey(Q)88.51		Ted Evetts86.55	1–6	Harry Ward(Q)90.50
Danny Noppert89.89	3–6	Ryan Harrington87.04		Ron Meulenkamp87.55	6–1	Joe Davis (Q)73.30
Jason Lowe82.53	6–4	John Scott (Q)77.72		Cody Harris91.55	2–6	Michael Barnard86.04
Robert Owen87.04	6–4	Michael Burgoine (Q)83.94		David Evans81.26	6–4	Benito van de Pas84.73
Alan Norris88.50	4–6	Dirk van Duijvenbode92.80		Joe Cullen90.25	6–2	José Justicia71.93
John Goldie*	w/o	Paul Hogan(Q)		Nathan Aspinall91.81	6–3	Andrew Pullen (Q)87.50
Vincent Kamphuis86.52	3–6	Kirk Shepherd87.94		Carl Wilkinson85.72	2–6	Ricky Evans90.65
James Richardson66.34	0–6	Robert Rickwood83.50		John Part71.57	6–0	Paul Whitworth (Q)53.45
Wayne Jones79.29	3–6	Luke Humphries81.41		Gabriel Clemens88.41	6–0	Andrew Gilding83.70

* Due to extreme weather, multiple players pulled out of the tournament.

Third round (best of nineteen legs)

Player	Score	Player		Player	Score	Player
Jason Lowe91.35	10–3	David Airey(Q)82.52		David Evans83.82	2–10	John Part92.38
David Pallett90.00	10–8	Robert Thornton89.57		Ricky Evans99.49	10–6	Luke Humphries94.35
Steve Beaton86.62	8–10	Jermaine Wattimena92.39		Jamie Lewis73.17	2–10	Robert Owen85.60
Kim Huybrechts86.08	10–8	Gabriel Clemens89.04		Steve West88.61	10–9	Darryl Pilgrim (Q)87.22
Krzysztof Ratajski92.28	10–7	Darren Webster90.21		James Wade87.96	10–6	Simon Stevenson84.76
Peter Wright88.75	9–10	Nathan Rafferty91.85		Chris Dobey93.74	10–2	Harry Ward(Q)85.01
John Henderson87.81	4–10	Matthew Edgar91.00		Paul Nicholson84.37	6–10	Paul Hogan(Q)86.27
Michael van Gerwen96.47	8–10	Jeffrey de Zwaan96.77		Gary Anderson97.41	10–3	Robert Rickwood94.88
Michael Smith98.38	10–5	Kirk Shepherd86.36		Simon Whitlock89.60	7–10	Ian White96.01
Mervyn King99.46	10–4	Raymond van Barneveld86.78		Rob Cross99.32	10–8	Nathan Aspinall94.87
Daryl Gurney95.93	10–9	Jelle Klaasen88.23		Martin Schindler97.78	10–7	Ryan Harrington89.57
Adrian Lewis88.58	5–10	Dirk van Duijvenbode94.00		Gerwyn Price89.94	10–6	Alex Roy(Q)88.36
Justin Pipe80.21	3–10	Stephen Bunting88.09		Dave Chisnall85.78	6–10	Ryan Meikle82.45
Jonny Clayton98.63	10–6	Michael Barnard93.64		Dave Prins85.02	4–10	Ron Meulenkamp88.83
Kyle Anderson92.11	10–7	Vincent van der Voort92.79		Joe Cullen89.77	8–10	Keegan Brown91.44
Corey Cadby92.21	10–5	Michael Rasztovits85.26		Zoran Lerchbacher*	w/o	Jamie Hughes

* Lerchbacher was the only third-round qualifier to withdraw from the tournament due to the weather conditions, so Hughes received a bye to the fourth round.

Saturday 3 March

Fourth round (best of nineteen legs)

Player	Score	Player		Player	Score	Player
Jeffrey de Zwaan100.12	8–10	Paul Hogan(Q)97.61		Rob Cross98.29	10–7	Kyle Anderson95.11
Ron Meulenkamp86.55	9–10	John Part87.41		Robert Owen96.61	10–9	Nathan Rafferty96.75
Jason Lowe92.12	5–10	Chris Dobey95.72		Krzysztof Ratajski92.95	10–5	Keegan Brown95.66
Gerwyn Price97.95	10–6	Dirk van Duijvenbode94.68		Steve West95.42	10–7	Matthew Edgar87.61
Gary Anderson93.97	10–3	Ricky Evans87.64		Jermaine Wattimena89.32	10–8	Stephen Bunting94.66
Mervyn King94.97	10–8	Jonny Clayton89.89		Corey Cadby97.20	10–7	Martin Schindler92.06
Jamie Hughes95.84	8–10	Ian White102.45		Daryl Gurney89.33	5–10	Kim Huybrechts94.45
Michael Smith90.30	10–4	Ryan Meikle85.62		David Pallett98.43	10–6	James Wade94.23

Fifth round (best of nineteen legs)

Player	Score	Player
Michael Smith93.99	9–10	Steve West93.91
Gary Anderson104.72	10–6	Jermaine Wattimena97.27
Corey Cadby98.79	10–7	Chris Dobey96.23
Mervyn King87.84	8–10	John Part86.14
Ian White92.24	7–10	Robert Owen92.76
Kim Huybrechts84.08	7–10	David Pallett88.10
Gerwyn Price101.45	10–9	Paul Hogan(Q)96.18
Krzysztof Ratajski92.63	3–10	Rob Cross103.88

Sunday 4 March

Quarter-finals (best of nineteen legs)

Player	Score	Player
Steve West91.56	5–10	David Pallett95.30
Robert Owen98.94	10–3	John Part80.72
Corey Cadby99.32	10–6	Gerwyn Price94.25
Rob Cross95.53	5–10	Gary Anderson98.31

Semi-finals and Final (best of twenty-one legs)

	Semi-finals (best of 21 legs)					Final (best of 21 legs)
	Gary Anderson95.31		11
	David Pallett87.40		7
						Gary Anderson95.71		11
						Corey Cadby99.78		7
	Robert Owen90.15		3
	Corey Cadby99.90		11