Caribbean qualifier Sudesh Fitzgerald, of Guyana, won the Caribbean and South American Masters to become the second ever Guyanese player to appear in the PDC World Championship, after Norman Madhoo who qualified for the 2004 event. Fitzgerald is entered in at the preliminary stage of the tournament. China qualifier Shi Yongsheng became the Chinese representative at the tournament, making this his third successive appearance in the PDC World Championship. Yongsheng played in the 2008 PDC World Championship, beating Indian qualifier Ashfaque Sayed in the preliminary round but losing to Alan Warriner-Little in the first round. He also played in the 2007 PDC World Championship but fell at the first hurdle in a loss to Andy Smith. Yongsheng won the Chinese National Championship to secure his place in this year's event, at the preliminary 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. He was entered in at the first round stage. In 2007, Laursen defeated Colin Monk 3–0 in the first round but narrowly lost 4–3 to third seed Dennis Priestley in the second round, having had eight darts to win the match. In 2008, he lost 3–1 in the opening match of the event to Alan Tabern. Eastern Europe qualifier The Eastern European qualifier took place on 31 October and was open to players from 14 countries in the area. Hungary's Nándor Bezzeg won the event to become the first ever Hungarian representative at the PDC World Championship, being given a first round place at the tournament. 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. Navratil then went on to defeat Philippines qualifier Rizal Barellano 5–0 in the preliminary round before losing 3–2 to Andy Jenkins in the first round. Finland qualifier Marko Kantele will be making his debut at the PDC World Championship (and is Finland's first ever representative in the event) in 2009 having won the Finnish Pro Darts Championship. He entered at the preliminary phase. Germany/Austria qualifier This qualifying place was decided by the German Darts Corporation rankings, which ranks all German/Austrian players from darts events held in the two countries. Austrian Mensur Suljović topped the rankings, however he had already qualified via the Continental Europe Order of Merit.