The 2002 Stan James World Matchplay was a professional darts tournament held from 28 July to 3 August 2002 at the Empress Ballroom in the Winter Gardens of Blackpool.

It was the ninth staging of the competition since the 1994 edition and the 18th of 35 Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) tournaments in the 2002 season.

The tournament's defending champion Phil Taylor defeated John Part by 18 legs to 16 in the final, winning his third consecutive World Matchplay title and his fifth overall since his first in the 1995 event.

Taylor made a nine-dart finish in the fifth leg of his quarter-final match against Mason, the first time the achievement had been broadcast live in the United Kingdom.

Keith Deller achieved the competition's highest checkout, a 170, in his second-round match against Alan Warriner.

[4] It was the ninth edition of the tournament and featured a 32-player main draw that was played at the Empress Ballroom in the Winter Gardens.

[2][3] A total of 28 players automatically qualified for the main draw according to their final position from 1 to 28 in the PDC rankings with 16 seeds.

[6] Sponsored by the betting company Stan James,[7] it had a total prize fund of £75,500,[3] and the host broadcaster was Sky Sports.

[7] The draw for the first round of the championship was conducted on Sky Sports News by Cox and Sid Waddell on 19 June.

[9] Kevin Painter, the 16th seed, averaged 53.85 points per dart to win 10–4 over former world champion Dennis Priestley.

[10] Taylor achieved a three-dart average of 100.74 and a checkout of 161 in whitewashing qualifier Burgess 10–0; he attempted to complete a nine-dart finish in leg seven before he missed the triple 20 inner ring on his seventh throw.

Fourth seed Denis Ovens was untroubled in a game with Whitworth and made a checkout of 121 in leg five en route to a 10–4 win.

[6] A 52 finish and a 89.60 three-dart average allowed Chris Mason to win 10–1 over Richie Burnett, the 2001 World Matchplay runner-up.

[6][13] Number 20 seed Keith Deller, who had lost in the first round of the previous three World Matchplays, came from 4–1 and 6–3 behind the two-time tournament winner Rod Harrington for a 10–8 victory with finishes of 116, 32 and 76 after the latter had a series of bounce outs that affected his flow.

[6] Another tie-break was required in a match between Bob Anderson and seed eight Peter Manley in which the former won 18–16;[13] both competitors compiled high scores with checkouts of 111 and 116.

[6] World number eight Colin Lloyd came from 4–7 behind Mick Manning to claim six legs in succession and win 10–7, saying afterwards, "I started thinking am I going to hit the double?

[15] John Part, the Ireland Open Class champion, had a three-dart average of 84.92 in whitewashing the error-prone Walsh 10–0.

The match saw Lazarenko lead 5–1 before Beaton responded to bring it to 8–9; the former finished on the double 16 outer ring to win.

[17] The final first round match was played between the world number six Roland Scholten and Paul Williams.

Scholten compiled high scores as the game went to 4–4 and later 8–8 before winning two more legs for a 10–8 victory on the double 20 outer ring.

Scholten then lowered his deficit to 9–3 until Lloyd had finishes in the double five and fifteen outer rings to earn a spot in the quarter-final.

When everyone's waving betting slips at you, it takes you a few legs to think that this fella could knock me out of the competition if I'm not careful.

Lloyd delayed victory by claiming the 27th leg and the 28th saw Part win the match by finishing on the double eight outer ring.

Part replied by compiling checkouts of 72 and 81 to remain in close contention, and took the lead by winning leg eleven.