Peter Wright (Picture: Lawrence Lustig/PDC)
Peter Wright (Picture: Lawrence Lustig/PDC)

Peter Wright has eyes on world number one spot after winning Matchplay


Peter Wright is aiming to head to Alexandra Palace as world number one in December after winning the Betfred World Matchplay for the first time.

Having defeated Dimitri Van den Bergh to lift the Phil Taylor Trophy at Blackpool's iconic Winter Gardens, Wright revealed his ambition to become the sport's top player before the end of his career.

The 51-year-old currently sits second on the PDC Order of Merit, £181,750 behind current world number one Gerwyn Price, but Wright believes he can overturn that deficit in the second half of 2021.

"Becoming world number one would be great, and I think I could be," Wright revealed.

"If I win the World Grand Prix and Grand Slam of Darts, and retain my European Championship title, I could be number one in the world before the World Championship.

"Obviously I will then have to defend £500,000 at the World Championship, but I think I can win that as well."

A hectic October and November period will see four televised ranking events take place, starting with the BoyleSports World Grand Prix in Leicester.

Wright explained there are no limits to what he could achieve, and also had a message for world number three Michael van Gerwen, whom he defeated in Saturday's semi-finals night.

He continued: "I'm looking forward to playing every weekend again. Michael [van Gerwen] will be as well, he'll be coming back to form. I would like to retract my words from earlier in the year when I said that Michael won't win a TV tournament.

"I think he could do because he's going to come back strong in the second half of the year."

World number two Wright had lost in the Winter Gardens final four years ago, but this time lifted the trophy named in honour of his conqueror in 2017 - Phil Taylor - to cap a memorable tournament.

A tearful Wright dedicated the win to his wife Jo after treating a capacity crowd to another superb performance in the final.

"It feels amazing to have this trophy in my hands when you think of all the names to have won it in the past," said Wright. "I might have a big mouth but I've backed it up and I'm only going to get better so the other players better get practicing.

"I think I am the best player in the world at the moment."

Wright also revealed his intention to stop tinkering with his setup over the coming months: "I only took two sets of darts to Blackpool.

"I know I need to stop taking 40-plus sets of darts to tournaments.

"I could do great things with these darts, and I think I've only just scratched the surface."

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