World Match: Laura Turner on how she prepares for the women’s tournament and her advice for the men’s title | News about darts
Laura Turner
Commentator Sky Sports Darts
Laura Turner faces Dutch player Aileen de Graaf in the best seven-legged penalty shootoutThe first fully televised women’s world match tournament hosted by PDC, will be held on Sunday 24 July in Blackpool, live on Sky Sports
Last Updated: 7/23/22 11:40pm
Not only is Laura Turner looking forward to the men’s World Matchplay tournament, but she’s also taking part in the women’s event on the iconic Winter Gardens stage.
Defending champions Peter Wright, Dimitri van den Bergh, Gary Anderson, Michael Smith, Michael van Gerwen and Gerwyn Price will all compete for the title of the famous Phil Taylor Trophy in nine days of action.
Turner revisits her favorite early games and who she thinks is going away with the title.
But we start with the Women’s World Match, where Turner will battle it out with a number of other female players at the inaugural run of the £25,000 event and the winner will walk away with £25,000. money 10,000 pounds.
(1) Lisa Ashton vs (8) Chloe O’Brien
(4) Aileen de Graaf vs (5) Laura Turner
(2) Fallon Sherrock vs (7) Katie Sheldon
(3) Lorraine Winstanley vs (6) Rhian Griffiths
My training goes well at home and I also try to play as many matches as I can. I just try not to think too much about it. I know when it comes to these bigger televised tournaments, I tend to let it get on my nerves and get a little nagged so I just try to stay relaxed, confident, keep going. hopefully everything will be fine when we get to that big stage at the Winter Gardens.
Thrilled but really, very excited and looking forward.
This women’s match is a great opportunity, not only to showcase what we can do right now, but to inspire the next generation, to have them see us there and think ‘I can do it’ and ‘I want to do it’ to pick up a set of darts and try out the sport.
If you don’t see people doing that then you don’t have your hero, you don’t have your inspiration, you don’t have that goal to inspire.
Maybe you can look at women’s football at the moment, you’ve got sold-out stadiums now and five, 10 years ago that never existed. So for Sky Sports to show the Women’s Match, for the support of the PDC, to increase the Women’s Match count, win a spot in the Darts Grand Slam, the World Championship and now the Match Ladies, it’s just an unbelievable opportunity and I hope we can all do it proudly.
What is special about The Matchplay?
It holds a very special place in the hearts of fans and players alike, not only because you’re playing in one of the most beautiful buildings in the world, but it’s one of those pointless tournaments. It was a knockout match. You must go out of those blocks immediately or you will be detected.
No set-play and no time to regroup. It’s really just a race to the end and that makes for a bit of a drama and hopefully we’ll see a lot more this year.
What are your picks on the first matches?
That match between Michael van Gerwen and Adrian Lewis looked like it was going to be an absolute fight. They last met at The Matchplay in 2016 believe it or not and they haven’t really played much against each other in the past few years.
Their rivalry extends to over 60 competitive matches against each other and over the years they have produced fireworks, drama and more importantly, they make the most entertaining matches. I hope many of the same.
Lewis is going into the match after his win at the 20 Player Championship and he’s really found his form.
We’ve only seen Van Gerwen play once since winning the Premier League, but hopefully if both of these players can find their form and start quickly, we should be in for a great game. opposite to.
Expect fireworks on Sunday evening
Joe Cullen vs Damon Heta
James Wade and Martin Lukeman
Michael van Gerwen and Adrian Lewis
Luke Humphries vs Nathan Aspinall
You have the reigning Masters champion and Premier League runner-up, Joe Cullen, up against newly crowned World Cup of Darts champion, Damon Heta. Heta took the top spot on the ProTour Order of Merit to claim his spot.
You also have Luke Humphries, the European tour leader, taking on Nathan Aspinall.
I wouldn’t say Luke is particularly a black horse because he’s winning titles at the moment, but if he hits the floor, I think he can go deep in this competition.
And the winner is?
There are some players in there that wouldn’t surprise me if they won it. I’d say you’ve got Michael Smith, Gerwyn Price, MVG, Luke Humphries, all in really really good form.
But if I go on, Jonny Clayton will never fail to impress and I think even though he disappeared early last year, I think I’ll support him to win the year. now.
Watch the daily Darts news on skysports.com/dartsour mobile app and Twitter account @skysportsdarts. We’ll be back to the World Match at Winter Gardens in Blackpool on Saturday, July 16 – live on Sky Sports Action.