WAYNE MARDLE would not be surprised if Beau Greaves stuns the world this Christmas and reaches the quarter-finals at Ally Pally.
The Voice of Darts, 52, will conduct the draw for the 128-player PDC World Darts Championship in Central London on Monday with the ceremony shown live on Sky Sports News.
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Wayne Mardle is tipping Beau Greaves to cause an upset at the darts World ChampionshipCredit: Alamy
The 21-year-old is much-improved since her last visit to Ally PallyCredit: Getty
There are five women in the field and Greaves, 21, is the danger for the top seeds like Luke Littler and Luke Humphries.
Nobody really wants to draw Yorkshire’s finest in the first round, especially as she attempts to become the second female, after Fallon Sherrock in December 2019, to win a game on the North London Palace stage.
The three-time women’s world champion lost on her last appearance there three years ago but is a much better player and is still improving.
This year Greaves has shown her pedigree and form against the world’s best on several occasions.
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At the UK Open in March, she pushed Humphries close in the fourth round, before losing 10-7.
And then this month she lost last-leg deciders to Gary Anderson and Michael van Gerwen in the group stage of the Grand Slam of Darts.
Mardle, a five-time world championship semi-finalist, told SunSport: “I’ve thought about this and I’ve had chats with Mark Webster and others.
“We were going up and down the rankings in our shared Airbnb recently.
“I basically said to him, I can’t see any reason why Beau can’t get to the quarterfinals of the World Championship.
“I said I think she’s top 16 in the world – right now. Forget rankings. I’m on about ability.
“So we started moving up from the top 40 and I was just reading out the ranking list. I said: Is she better than so and so?
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“So, he was like, ‘yeah, yeah,’ in agreement.
“Well, we’re now inside the top 16 before we get to a no. There was the odd no, like with [world No21] Nathan Aspinall, where the rankings are a little bit lying.
“But let me tell you, if she gets to the quarter-finals of the worlds, I wouldn’t be surprised.
“If Beau were to draw James Wade, I wouldn’t be surprised if she beat him.
“What I’m getting at, I don’t even think the draw has to be favourable for her.
“I believe that she’s capable of beating anyone.
“You need that little bit of luck, that little bit of timing and the ability.
“She’s got the ability, the other stuff just needs to happen.”
Littler is the reigning world darts champion and is trying to become the first person to defend the crown since Flying Scotsman Gary Anderson went back-to-back in 2016.
The champion on January 3, 2026 will earn £1million – the richest prize in the sport’s history.
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Mardle said: “Looking past Luke Littler and Luke Humphries is pushing it.
“But what I’ve seen from, and this is all temporary, recency bias, European champion Gian van Veen has a chance.
“But one that may have come to the fore is Michael van Gerwen.
“He got beaten in the World Final last year and people seem to forget that.
“The way he dealt with Gary Anderson at the Grand Slam – and that was a pressurised game for him.
“To play that well under pressure tells me that man has got zero self-doubt. Zero. Absolutely none.
“I wouldn’t rule out another Van Gerwen final. It wouldn’t surprise me.
“The next world champion, I believe if it’s not an established name, it’ll be a name that won’t surprise you.
“I’m saying someone like a Josh Rock, a Gian van Veen, maybe even as far as a Wessel Nijman.
“We’re not going to have someone that is like ‘who is that, where did he come from?’ That’s not going to happen.
“With the 128, it’s another game. The World Championship is already gruelling enough.
“The players are on and off, they’re up and down with the adrenaline buzz.
“Now they have to win two games before Christmas.”
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Sky Sports will be the exclusive home of the World Darts Championship, with 20 days of unmissable action starting on December 11.
Who are the top 40 seeds that have qualified?
- Luke Littler
- Luke Humphries
- Michael van Gerwen
- Stephen Bunting
- Jonny Clayton
- James Wade
- Gian van Veen
- Chris Dobey
- Danny Noppert
- Josh Rock
- Ross Smith
- Gerwyn Price
- Gary Anderson
- Damon Heta
- Martin Schindler
- Rob Cross
- Mike de Decker
- Dave Chsinall
- Ryan Searle
- Jermaine Wattimena
- Nathan Aspinall
- Dimitri Van den Bergh
- Daryl Gurney
- Ryan Joyce
- Cameron Menzies
- Ritchie Edhouse
- Luke Woodhouse
- Dirk van Duijvenbode
- Peter Wright
- Michael Smith
- Joe Cullen
- Wessel Nijman
- Ricardo Pietreczko
- Andrew Gilding
- Raymond van Barneveld
- Scott Williams
- Krzysztof Ratajski
- Martin Lukeman
- Brendan Dolan
- Kevin Doets
