John Part was the defending champion, having won the PDC World Championship for the second time in the previous year's final against Kirk Shepherd.

[2] The tournament was also notable for featuring the first ever nine-dart finish at the PDC World Championship, completed by van Barneveld in his quarter-final match with Jelle Klaasen.

[11] Klaasen, on his debut in 2008, fell in the first round (albeit in a sudden death leg) to fellow countryman Vincent van der Voort, having missed ten darts to win the match.

[12] Van der Rassel fared better in 2008, beating Colin Lloyd 3–2 in his first-round match before dispatching Denis Ovens 4–1 in the second round; however he fell by the same scoreline to Peter Manley in the last 16.

Suljović is making his second appearance in the tournament – in 2008 he defeated Andy Smith 3–2 in the first round before losing out 4–1 to eventual champion John Part in his second match.

Stewart won the Oceanic Masters, an event open to all Australian and New Zealand players, to secure his debut in the PDC World Championship, at the first round stage.

Denmark qualifier For the third year in a row, Per Laursen topped the Danish Darts League to win a third successive place in the PDC World Championship.

[19] He succeeds the Czech Republic's Miroslav Navratil who won the previous year's Eastern European qualifier to earn a place in the 2008 World Championship.

Pennsylvanian Darin Young topped the rankings, after a second round appearance in the 2008 Las Vegas Desert Classic and victory in the inaugural North American Darts Championship.

[26] Following this, Dobromyslova will join the PDC circuit full-time and therefore is not eligible to play in British Darts Organisation events, meaning she cannot defend her BDO Ladies' world title.

The opening match of the tournament was an international affair, seeing Spain's Carlos Rodriguez take on sixteenth seed Roland Scholten of the Netherlands.

The tournament lit up in the next match as American Bill Davis sensationally defeated the defending champion and fourth seed, Canadian John Part, 3–0.

The afternoon session of the second day of the World Championship opened with fifth seed Terry Jenkins taking on Dennis Smith who was returning to the event after a two-year absence.

Welshman and twenty-ninth seed Barrie Bates had a similarly easy victory over Northern Ireland's Felix McBrearty, dropping three legs before a 101 checkout gave him a 3–0 win to end the afternoon session.

The evening session opened with ninth seed Alan Tabern producing a comfortable 3–0 victory over 1996 BDO World Champion Steve Beaton.

This was followed by a third preliminary game, easily the highest quality of the round so far as both the USA's David Fatum, a semi-finalist in the 2008 US Open, and Ireland's Shane O'Connor produced averages of above 75.

Another player from the USA and the highest ranked on the North American Order of Merit, Darin Young, took on Dutch youngster and thirty-second seed Michael van Gerwen in the next match.

Thirteen-time World Champion and top seed Phil Taylor opened his campaign with a dominant victory over debutant Steve Grubb.

Taylor, with a 96 average – the highest of the tournament so far – was never pushed and didn't drop a leg in a whitewash of the qualifier that acted as a warning shot to the rest of the competition.

Losper, who twelve months ago lost 3–1 in the first round to eventual champion John Part, averaged 87 in a tidy 6–4 victory over Fitzgerald, making his debut at the World Championship.

Barnard did not disgrace himself, averaging 93 and performing 114 checkout, but Hamilton's power play including five 180s ensured he went through while throwing down the gauntlet for the rest of the field.

Massive hype had gathered over the appearance of Russian Anastasia Dobromyslova, the Ladies World Champion, facing off against Dutchman Remco van Eijden in a preliminary round game.

Crowd favourite and eighth seed Wayne Mardle then began his World Championship campaign against debutant American David Fatum.

The final match of the day saw another upset as thirteenth seed Peter Manley fell in a deciding set to Serbian-born Austrian Mensur Suljović.

Suljović, a second round loser to eventual champion John Part last year, led for the first time in the third set, before 'One Dart' hit a clinical 118 checkout to put him back in the game.

The fourth day only featured play in the evening, and began with a major upset as twenty-second seed Chris Mason fell in straight sets to 67-year-old Irishman John MaGowan.

The next match was an unexpected demolition of twenty-seventh seed Adrian Gray, who did not win a leg in a whitewash defeat by top Australian player Paul Nicholson.

Twenty-third seed Kirk Shepherd was not to have a repeat of his fairytale run to the final in last year's 2008 event as he was defeated in a deciding set by Dutchman Jan van der Rassel.

The fourteenth seed Colin Osborne, a quarter-finalist in 2007 but a first round loser last year, opened his campaign with a clinical straight-sets victory over South African Charles Losper.

The tournament resumed and the second round began on day six, which opened with a remarkable match between old PDC stalwart Dennis Smith and young Kevin McDine.