Paul Lim

He made his World Championship debut in 1982, losing a first-round match to Dave Whitcombe. He failed to progress beyond the second round for the next seven years – losing to the likes of Cliff Lazarenko (twice), Bob Anderson, Mike Gregory, and John Lowe (three times). Then in 1990 he hit the headlines and jackpot as he achieved the first World Championship nine-dart finish against Jack McKenna in the second round on 9 January. The bonus prize of £52,000 was more than eventual tournament winner Phil Taylor claimed for becoming world champion. It was the only year that Lim reached the quarter-finals of the event, losing again to Lazarenko.

He continued to come up against the biggest names in the game in the world championship: Alan Warriner, John Part (en route to the 1994 title), and Lowe defeated him again in the years after his nine-darter.

Lim decided to switch to darts' other organisation, the World Darts Council (now PDC) later in 1994 and made his debut at the 1994 World Matchplay. Lim never enjoyed any success in the PDC – he won only one match in the PDC World Championship, despite appearing in the tournament each year between 1997 and 2002. Although he no longer competes on the darts circuit full-time, Lim still competes at tournaments in his home country. He reached the last 16 of the Las Vegas Open in January 2007.[2]

He won many titles in and around his native country including five Singapore Opens, five Malaysian Opens, and five Asian Cups, but his failure to reach the final stages of the British Darts Organisation and Professional Darts Corporation major tournaments has meant he will be best remembered for his 1990 nine-dart achievement.

Lim made his first appearance in the World Championships for 11 years after being awarded a place in the 2013 PDC World Darts Championship, as a result of being the World Soft Tip Champion. He beat Mohd Latif Sapup in the preliminary round 4–1 to set up a first-round match against second favourite for the tournament Michael van Gerwen. Lim lost 3–0, despite hitting the tournament's first 170 finish as well as twelve scores of 140 or more during the match.[3] Lim qualified for the 2014 World Championship via the International Qualifiers. He was drawn against Japan's Morihiro Hashimoto in the preliminary round and was beaten 4–2.[4] Lim made his debut in the 2014 World Cup of Darts as he represented Singapore with Harith Lim (no relation). They won five legs in a row in the opening round against Ireland to progress with a 5–3 win.[5] In the second round Paul lost to South Africa's Devon Petersen, but Harith beat Graham Filby to mean a doubles match was required to settle the tie. Singapore were edged out 4–3, but never had a dart for the match.[6] Lim lost in the final of the 2015 French Dartslive event to Leonard Gates, but won the Soft Tip Qualifier for the 2016 World Championship for the second time by seeing off Boris Krčmar 4–2 in the final.[7] He went on to play Aleksandr Oreshkin in the preliminary round and missed two match darts in a 2–1 set defeat.[8] Lim and Harith made it to the second round of the 2016 World Cup, but lost their singles matches 4–2 to Austria's Mensur Suljović and Rowby-John Rodriguez.[9] Lim won the Soft Tip Dartslive events in Taipei and Korea during the year.[10]

In the first round of the 2017 World Cup Lim and Harith met the number one seeds of Scotland represented by Gary Anderson and Peter Wright. A 100 finish from Lim completed a huge 5–2 shock victory for Singapore and they then whitewashed Spain 4–0 in a doubles match to make it through to the quarter-finals of the event for the first time.[11] Lim lost 4–1 to Belgium's Kim Huybrechts (who averaged 121.97), but Harith defeated Ronny Huybrechts 4–2. Singapore's tournament was ended in the deciding doubles match as Belgium progressed 4–2.[12]

In the 2018 PDC World Darts Championship, he defeated Kai Fan Leung, and number 30 seed Mark Webster to set up a second round clash with Gary Anderson. He lost the match 4-1 and also missed double 12 for a nine dart finish.[13] In the 2018 PDC World Cup of Darts, he again paired up with Harith, where they defeated New Zealand 5-3 to set up a second round clash with England. In the first round, Paul defeated world champion Rob Cross 4-2 with an average of 102.29. However, Harith lost his singles match to Dave Chisnall, meaning a doubles match was required which they lost 4-1. [14][15]

Lim qualified for the 2019 PDC World Darts Championship by finishing 5th on the PDC Asian Tour. [16] He lost to Ross Smith in round 1, After a successful 2019 Asian Tour, finishing 3rd this enabled him to qualify for the 2020 PDC World Darts Championship

Lim took part in the 2019 WDF World Cup representing Hong Kong instead of Singapore.

• 1982: 1st round (lost to Dave Whitcombe 0–2)
• 1983: 2nd round (lost to Cliff Lazarenko 1–3)
• 1984: 1st round (lost to Mike Gregory 0–2)
• 1985: 1st round (lost to Cliff Lazarenko 0–2)
• 1986: 2nd round (lost to Peter Locke 0–3)
• 1987: 2nd round (lost to Bob Anderson 1–3)
• 1988: 2nd round (lost to John Lowe 1–3)
• 1989: 2nd round (lost to John Lowe 2–3)
• 1990: Quarter-final (lost to Cliff Lazarenko 0–4)
• 1991: 1st round (lost to Alan Warriner-Little 0–3)
• 1992: 2nd round (lost to John Lowe 0–3)
• 1994: 2nd round (lost to John Part 0–3)

• 1997: Group-stage (lost to John Lowe 1–3) & (lost to Jamie Harvey 2–3)
• 1998: Group-stage (lost to Peter Evison 0–3) & (lost to John Part 1–3)
• 1999: 1st round (lost to John Lowe 0–3)
• 2000: 1st round (lost to Alan Warriner-Little 0–3)
• 2001: 2nd round (lost to Alan Warriner-Little 2–3)
• 2002: 1st round (lost to Dennis Smith 0–4)
• 2013: 1st round (lost to Michael van Gerwen 0–3)
• 2014: Preliminary round (lost to Morihiro Hashimoto 2–4)
• 2016: Preliminary round (lost to Aleksandr Oreshkin 1–2)
• 2018: 2nd round (lost to Gary Anderson 1–4)
• 2019: 1st round (lost to Ross Smith 1–3)
• 2020: 1st round (lost to Luke Woodhouse 0–3)
• 2021: 2nd round (lost to Dimitri Van den Bergh 0–3)