Fallon Sherrock and Beau Greaves contested the final of the 2024 Women’s World Matchplay

The Women’s World Matchplay is one of the most high-profile darts tournaments in the ladies’ game. First held in 2022, the Women’s World Matchplay is put on by the PDC (Professional Darts Corporation) every July at the iconic Winter Gardens in Blackpool.

The 2025 edition of the Women’s World Matchplay marks the fourth staging of the competition and will take place on Sunday July 27. Although still a relatively new addition to the darts calendar, the PDC Women’s World Matchplay has quickly become established as one of the premier tournaments in women’s darts.

The Women’s World Matchplay darts is held in Blackpool at the Empress Ballroom, which is part of the Winter Gardens complex. It is a historic venue in darts, having hosted the World Matchplay since its inception in 1994.

With over 30 years of history, the World Matchplay is one of the PDC’s flagship events and will feature the likes of Luke Humphries, Luke Littler and Michael van Gerwen this year. Find out more about the tournament with our ‘World Matchplay’ blog.

Japan’s Mikuru Suzuki reached the final of the Women’s World Matchplay on her debut in 2023

The Women’s Darts World Matchplay format differs from the World Matchplay as it does not require the match to be won by two clear legs. The tournament is played from start to finish with the quarter-finals, semi-finals and final all completed in one action-packed session.

The tournament is likely to evolve in the future as the sport continues to grow and more female players emerge onto the scene. With the strength in depth of the women’s game improving each year, there is already calls for the competition to be expanded from eight to 16 players.

Here is a breakdown of the Women’s World Matchplay’s current format:-

• Quarter-finals – first to 4 legs
• Semi-finals – first to 5 legs
• Final – first to 6 legs

The Women’s World Matchplay is one of the hardest competitions to qualify for with the field limited to just eight players. The top eight players on a one-year Order of Merit based on earnings won in PDC Women’s Series events over a 12-month period qualify for the tournament.

The lineup for the 2025 Women’s World Matchplay:-

• Beau Greaves
• Noa-Lynn van Leuven
• Fallon Sherrock
• Lisa Ashton
• Robyn Byrne
• Gemma Hayter
• Lorraine Winstanley
• Kirsi Viinikainen

The Women’s World Matchplay is one of the most lucrative tournaments to win in the ladies’ game, with a winner’s prize of £10,000

The prize money for the Women’s World Matchplay stands at a total of £25,000 – the same since its first staging in 2022. It is one of the biggest cash prizes in the women’s game, with the winner going home with £10,000.

Below is the Betfred Women’s World Matchplay prize money breakdown for 2025:-

• Winner - £10,000
• Runner-up - £5,000
• Semi-finalists - £2,500
• Quarter-finalists - £1,250

The Women’s World Matchplay was only launched in 2022 but has already seen some exciting moments in its brief history. The inaugural Women’s World Matchplay was held on July 24, 2022 and saw five nations represented with players from England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland and the Netherlands all qualifying.

Lisa Ashton and Fallon Sherrock looked to be on course to meet in the final in Blackpool, as the top two seeds advanced through their opening round ties against Chloe O’Brien and Katie Sheldon. But in the first semi-final, Aileen de Graaf edged past Ashton 5-4 to book her place in the decider, where she played Sherrock after ‘The Queen of the Palace’ defeated Lorraine Winstanley in the other tie in the last four. De Graaf opened up a 3-2 lead in the final, before Sherrock hit back with four straight legs, and featured a 142 finish, to prevail 6-3 and be the first name on the trophy.

The 2023 edition of the tournament saw the debuts of former Women’s World Champions Beau Greaves and Mikuru Suzuki, and the duo would meet in the final. Greaves defeated Suzuki 6-1 in the decider to become the tournament’s second ever winner. Greaves would then make history 12 months later when she beat Sherrock 6-3 in the 2024 final to become the first multi-time winner of the Women's World Matchplay.

The qualifiers for the 2025 Women’s World Matchplay have now been confirmed and it is one of the strongest lineups yet, with four former major champions in the field. Ahead of the tournament taking place in Blackpool on July 27, get the lowdown on all eight players competing at the Winter Gardens…

Widely regarded as the best female darts player on the planet, Beau Greaves returns to the Winter Gardens this summer as the defending back-to-back Women’s World Matchplay champion and the number one seed. Born in Doncaster, ‘Beau ‘n’ Arrow’ started playing in tournaments from an early age and cleaned up on the girls’ circuit before making the jump to the women’s events in 2019 at the age of just 15.

Greaves became the youngest women’s world champion in history, winning the WDF Women’s World Championship in 2022 at 18. She made her return to the PDC Women’s Series later that year and went on an incredible 70-match winning run to secure a debut at the PDC World Darts Championship. The England international continued to dominate the women’s game in 2023, picking up the Women’s World Matchplay on her debut and retaining the Women’s World Championship at the Lakeside. 

In 2024, Greaves retained both titles, defeating Fallon Sherrock 6-3 in the final of last year's Women's World Matchplay with a 98 average, before completing a hat-trick of WDF Women's World Championship crowns with a victory over Sophie McKinlay in the final. So far in 2025, the 21-year-old has won multiple titles on both the Development and Challenge Tours, and currently sits top of the former's Order of Merit, and in line for a PDC tour card next year. 

Greaves topped the Order of Merit to qualify for the 2025 Women’s World Matchplay with £33,800 in prize money, which included an astonishing 15 title wins over the 24 Women’s Series events.

One of the most instantly recognisable players in the world of darts, Fallon Sherrock wrote her name into the history books when she became the first woman to beat a man in the PDC World Darts Championship. In the 2020 tournament, historic wins against Ted Evetts and Mensur Suljovic earned Sherrock the nickname of ‘The Queen of the Palace’.

The Milton Keynes-based player broke more ground in 2021, reaching the final of the Nordic Darts Masters and the quarter-finals of the Grand Slam of Darts – both firsts for a female player. In 2022, Sherrock made more history when she won the inaugural Women’s World Matchplay, beating Aileen de Graaf in the final to be the first name on the trophy.

Sherrock’s title defence in Blackpool in 2023 ended in a 4-3 defeat to Lisa Ashton in the quarter-finals, but she returned to form at the back end of 2023 and won four Women’s Series titles on the spin. Another two tournament victories in early 2024 helped her qualify for last year's Women’s World Matchplay as the number two seed. Sherrock's Winter Gardens campaign last year saw her beat two former world champions in Anastasia Dobromyslova (4-0) and Ashton (5-4) to reach the final, where she was beaten 6-3 by the defending champion Beau Greaves.

'The Queen of the Palace' qualified for a fourth Women's World Matchplay in 2025 after winning three titles, and reaching another four finals, on the Women's Series during the last 12 months. Sherrock returns to Blackpool this summer as the number three seed, and one of only two ever presents in the tournament, but recently said she may take a break from darts in 2026 for health reasons.

Lisa Ashton has cemented her place as one of the all-time greats in the ladies’ game, having won four Women’s World Championship titles in the BDO. ‘The Lancashire Rose’ has racked up more than 100 tournament wins in her career, but one of her biggest triumphs came when there were tour cards rather than titles at stake.

In 2020, the Bolton-based player made history as the first woman to win a PDC tour card at Q-School, which earned her two years of playing on the professional circuit. Ashton dominated the early years of the PDC Women’s Series, finishing first, second and first on the Order of Merit in 2020, 2021 and 2022 to earn a trio of appearances at the PDC World Darts Championship.

Ashton’s bid for Women’s World Matchplay glory, one of the few titles she has not won in the ladies’ game, has fallen short at the semi-final hurdle in each of the last three years. She returns to Blackpool this summer as the fourth seed and in good form after winning a title and reaching three more finals on the Women’s Series titles so far in 2025.

One of two debutants in this year's Women's World Matchplay, England's Gemma Hayter has quickly become a force to be reckoned with on the PDC Women's Series in the last 18 months. Hayter first made her mark back in 2016 as part of the England women's team that won the British Internationals, before taking a long break from competitive darts.

Hayter ended a near 10-year lay off at the start of 2024 when she entered the Women's Series for the first time, and made an instant impact with a run to the semi-finals in the first event of the season. Her rise continued as she won Events 10 and 19 later that year and finished seventh on the Women's Series Order of Merit for 2024.

The second of those titles gave the 32-year-old a strong platform to qualify for the 2025 Women's World Matchplay, and she cemented her place in the eight-player field in Blackpool by reaching another two finals on the Women's Series earlier this year. Hayter banked £9,200 from the last 24 events to clinch her Winter Gardens debut as the sixth seed.

Lorraine Winstanley is back in the Women's World Matchplay after a three-year absence, qualifying as the seventh seed for the 2025 edition of the tournament. The former World Masters champion was part of the inaugural Women's World Matchplay back in 2022, where she went in as the number three seed. Her first campaign at the Winter Gardens saw her beat Rhian Griffiths 4-3 before losing out 5-2 to Fallon Sherrock in the semi-finals.

The 49-year-old finished ninth and 17th in the race to Blackpool in 2023 and 2024, but has confirmed her spot in the eight-player field this time round with some impressive performances over the last 12 months. Although she has not added to her one-title tally on the Women's Series, Winstanley's consistency has seen her reach two finals and another six semi-finals in the last 24 Women's Series events, helping her bank £7,900 in prize money.

Winstanley's greatest triumph so far came back in 2017 when she won the World Masters women's singles title, beating Australia's Corrine Hammond 5-2 in the final to land her maiden major title. In 2019, Winstanley defeated former world champions Trina Gulliver and Anastasia Dobromyslova on her way to the BDO Women's World Championship final, where she was beaten by Japan's Mikuru Suzuki.

Kirsi Viinikainen will make history at this year's Women's World Matchplay as the first player from Finland to compete in the tournament. The 52-year-old has qualified for the Winter Gardens as the eighth seed, holding off fierce competition from the likes of Aileen de Graaf and Rhian O'Sullivan to take the last spot in the field.

The Finn has been testing her skills on the PDC Women's Series since 2023, and finished in 15th and 14th place in the race to Blackpool for the previous two editions of the Women's World Matchplay. Viinikainen's big breakthrough in the PDC came in March this year when she won her first Women's Series title in Event 5 - the first Scandinavian player to join the roll of honour since the Women's Series first began in 2020.

Last November, Viinikainen made her debut in the WDF Women's World Championship. She dropped just one leg in a straight sets win against Amanda Loch in the first round, before her Lakeside debut ended in a 2-0 defeat to Beau Greaves - a match most notable for Viinikainen going seven darts into a perfect nine-dart leg.

The fourth staging of the Women’s World Matchplay is just around the corner as eight of the top female players get ready to battle it out for the trophy. The 2025 Women’s World Matchplay takes place on July 27 at the Winter Gardens, in Blackpool, and will be broadcast live on Sky Sports in the UK and Ireland.

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Read our ‘Female Darts Players: Redefining The World Of Darts’ blog for a closer look at some of the most famous professional women’s players competing right now.

Pictures: PDC