World Championship Performances
King has reached two World Championship finals and four semi-finals since making his debut in the BDO version in 1997. He went as far as the semi-final in his debut year, losing to eventual champion Les Wallace. During his run he hit thirty 180s, setting a new record for the tournament at the time. Since switching to the PDC, his best performance came in the 2009 World Championship when he reached the semi-final, losing 2–6 to Phil Taylor.
He reached his first BDO World Championship final in 2002. He narrowly beat Raymond van Barneveld 5–3 in the quarter-finals. In the semi-finals he convincingly beat Colin Monk 5–1. He lost the final4–6 to Tony David. King spoke on David's performance congratulating him and commented, "I just wish I could have played half as well as he did."
In 2003, King beat Steve Coote, Dennis Harbour and Monk before losing to van Barneveld 5–2 in the semi-finals.
In 2004, King again reached the world final. During his run he beat Rick Hofstra by 3 sets to 1, Jarkko Komula 3–2, Ritchie Davies 5–4, Tony O'Shea 5–1, before meeting Andy Fordham in the final. The match ended in a 6–3 victory for Fordham, making it the second time in three years that King had finished runner-up. Again King told of his disappointment commenting "I don't think it was a fantastic game. I just did not turn up.
His last appearance at the BDO World Championship was in 2007, where he narrowly lost a semi-final to Martin Adams 5–6.
King's most successful PDC World Championship was in the 2009, when he beat Mark Walsh and Dennis Smith before beating Barrie Bates 5–2 in the quarter-finals. This run set up a semi-final clash with Phil Taylor. King lost to Taylor 2–6. However, since then he has been knocked out in the second round every year to Co Stompé, Andy Smith and Michael van Gerwen in 2010, 2011 and 2012 respectively.
Read more about this topic: Mervyn King (darts Player)
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