Phil Taylor believes a female star WILL win PDC World Darts Championship and backs 18-year-old sensation Beau Greaves

PHIL TAYLOR believes a woman will win the PDC World Darts Championship in his lifetime.

A record three female stars – Lisa Ashton, Fallon Sherrock and 18-year-old darts sensation Beau Greaves – are in the 96-player draw of the £2.5milllion tournament.

Beau Greaves in the latest female star looking to make it big on the world darts sceneGetty

Fallon Sherrock has already made waves on the men’s darts circuitPA

Phil Taylor believes he will see a female PDC World Darts Championship winner in his lifetimeGetty

Sherrock, 28, made darts history three years ago when she beat two men – Ted Evetts and Mensur Suljovic – in a huge moment for the tungsten sisterhood.

The PDC World Darts Championship kicks off at Ally Pally on December 15 and these will be the fifth worlds since The Power – a 16-time world champion – call it quits.

Taylor, 62, said: “Do I think a lady will win it? Yes, I think it will probably happen. Maybe not yet, but one day.

“Beau Greaves is setting the standard. If she can hit 108, 109 averages on the floor and transfer those numbers to the stage, she could win it.

“It would be so good for darts if Beau or Fallon had a good run.

“I don’t know a lot about Beau – I played with her once at an exhibition in Prague, of all places.

“But my grandson Matthew, who is darts-mad, tells me about her all the time – what averages she’s hitting, which tournaments she’s won, everything.

“And without wanting to rock the boat, one reason I’m saying that is because of the transgender barriers which are coming down.

“Hypothetically, you could have a fella who identifies as a lady winning it – and there’s no rule against it.”

Peter Wright won the Sid Waddell Trophy in January 2022 and defends his crown on the opening night when he faces Northern Ireland’s Mickey Mansell and New Zealander Ben Robb in the second round.

Snakebite, 52, has not thrown a competitive dart for a month because his wife Jo has been in and out of hospital as she deals with complications caused by the removal of a gallbladder.

But Taylor said: “I’m sure he will be ready for it. With Jo having been in hospital, he might have practised even more to take his mind off it.

“Sometimes taking your mind off a stressful thing like that can help, in a strange way, because it makes you less nervous.

“I feel sorry for him because the first time he won it in 2020, Covid came along.

“This time he’s had health problems and his wife being in hospital. So he’s never had a real chance to bask in the glory of being a world champion. But you’ll have to play well to beat him.”

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