The 2026 Women’s World Matchplay reaches its day of truth in Blackpool on Sunday. Beau Greaves starts as the top seed and is chasing a third title in the event, while Lisa Ashton defends her crown and Fallon Sherrock returns to a stage where she has already made a major mark.
The PDC has confirmed the day’s schedule: play starts at 13:00 BST in the Empress Ballroom at the Winter Gardens, with the quarter-finals, semi-finals and final all held in the same session. Sky Sports is leaning into the same key point: Greaves arrives as favourite after becoming the first woman to win a PDC ranking title on the ProTour in April.
26 July update: the full Blackpool schedule
With this short format, there is no real settling-in period. The quarter-finals are best of nine legs, the semi-finals use the same format, then the final moves to best of 11 legs. Put simply: a player can win the afternoon in three matches, but one slow start can be very expensive.
| Round | Fixtures |
|---|---|
| Quarter-finals | Beau Greaves v Kirsi Viinikainen Gemma Hayter v Vicky Pruim Lisa Ashton v Rhian O’Sullivan Fallon Sherrock v Deta Hedman |
| Semi-finals | Greaves/Viinikainen v Hayter/Pruim Ashton/O’Sullivan v Sherrock/Hedman |
| Final | Final over the best of 11 legs |
Why Greaves is the story of the afternoon
The key point is clear: Greaves is not just returning to reclaim a trophy she lost in 2025. She also comes into Blackpool with a new status on the PDC circuit. Her Players Championship 11 win against Michael Smith, sealed with a 142 checkout, changed the way her season is being read. This is no longer only the dominant player on the women’s circuit, but a player already capable of beating major ProTour names.
That context makes her opener against Kirsi Viinikainen more than a routine favourite’s quarter-final. Greaves won the event in 2023 and 2024, Ashton stopped her in last year’s semi-finals, then beat Sherrock in a deciding-leg final. This time, the question is simple: can Greaves take back control of a tournament that already looked like hers?
The stakes go beyond the trophy. The winner will earn £15,000, plus two major rewards: a place at the 2026 Grand Slam of Darts and qualification for the 2026/27 PDC World Championship. For the women’s circuit, it remains one of the most direct routes onto the biggest mixed stages.
The full draw for the 2026 Women’s World Matchplay
The PDC confirmed the line-up and draw for the 2026 Women’s World Matchplay on 21 June. This fifth edition retains the short, straightforward format that makes the event so compelling: eight players, three rounds, a single afternoon in Blackpool, and very little time to get into the swing of things.
The tournament brings together the top eight players from the Women’s Series rankings, calculated over a 12-month period since last July. This ranking provides a clear picture of the current hierarchy on the PDC women’s circuit: Beau Greaves leads by a wide margin, Lisa Ashton remains the defending champion, Fallon Sherrock returns to a stage where she has previously made a significant impact, and several players are looking to cement their status or make their first real breakthrough in Blackpool.
| Rank | Player | Ranking points |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Beau Greaves | £45,700 |
| 2 | Lisa Ashton | £15,550 |
| 3 | Fallon Sherrock | £13,150 |
| 4 | Gemma Hayter | £9,800 |
| 5 | Vicky Pruim | £8,250 |
| 6 | Deta Hedman | £7,500 |
| 7 | Rhian O’Sullivan | £6,300 |
| 8 | Kirsi Viinikainen | £6,150 |
First-round fixtures in Blackpool
The draw has immediately pitted several high-profile matches against each other in the same half of the draw. Lisa Ashton will begin her title defence against Rhian O’Sullivan. Ashton arrives as the 2025 champion, having beaten Fallon Sherrock in last year’s final, and will face a high-stakes opener in a best-of-nine-leg format.
Top seed Beau Greaves will face Kirsi Viinikainen. Greaves won the Women’s World Matchplay in 2023 and 2024, before relinquishing her crown to Ashton in 2025. Her lead in the Women’s Series rankings is clear, with £45,700 in qualifying earnings, but this tournament leaves little room for error: a poor start to a quarter-final could be enough to throw everything into doubt.
Gemma Hayter will face Vicky Pruim in an intriguing clash between two players who have enjoyed strong runs this season. Hayter secured her qualification with two finals and four semi-finals in 2026, enough to finish fourth in the qualifying rankings. Pruim, meanwhile, will be making her debut in the event after winning her first Women’s Series title in May, then reaching the final of Event 13 on Saturday to secure her place in Blackpool.
The final quarter-final will see Fallon Sherrock take on Deta Hedman. Sherrock is very familiar with this tournament: she won the inaugural edition in 2022, before losing the 2024 and 2025 finals to Beau Greaves and Lisa Ashton respectively. Hedman, aged 66, will be making her debut at the Women’s World Matchplay. Her presence adds a real element of interest to the afternoon, combining her vast experience on the women’s tour with her first appearance in this specific format.
| Quarter-final | Fixture |
|---|---|
| 1 | Beau Greaves v Kirsi Viinikainen |
| 2 | Gemma Hayter v Vicky Pruim |
| 3 | Lisa Ashton v Rhian O’Sullivan |
| 4 | Fallon Sherrock v Deta Hedman |
Tournament format, date and broadcast
The 2026 Women’s World Matchplay will take place on Sunday 26 July 2026, during the afternoon session, in the Empress Ballroom at the Winter Gardens in Blackpool. The venue gives the tournament a special profile, right at the heart of Men’s World Matchplay week, in a venue already associated with the PDC’s major summer events.
The format remains deliberately compact. The quarter-finals and semi-finals are played as best of nine legs. The final is a best of eleven legs. In practical terms, it takes five legs to win a quarter-final or semi-final, then six legs to lift the trophy. The pressure is therefore on right from the very first legs: breaks are worth their weight in gold, quick starts can make all the difference, and the players have no time to wait for the match to settle.
| Element | Details |
|---|---|
| Date | Sunday 26 July 2026 |
| Session | Afternoon |
| Venue | Winter Gardens, Empress Ballroom, Blackpool |
| Broadcast | Sky Sports and PDC’s global broadcasters |
| Quarter-finals | Best of 9 legs |
| Semi-finals | Best of 9 legs |
| Final | Best of 11 legs |
Prize money and sporting stakes
The total prize money amounts to £40,000. The distribution heavily favours the winner, with £15,000 for the title, but each round also counts towards the circuit rankings. A runner-up will take home £8,000, semi-finalists £4,500 and quarter-finalists £2,000.
However, there is more at stake than just the prize money. The winner of the 2026 Women’s World Matchplay will qualify for the Grand Slam of Darts in November, a major tournament where the best players can compete against a wider field of PDC players. She will also secure a place at the 2026/27 World Championship. For the eight players taking part, Blackpool could therefore prove a game-changer for the end of the season: a title opens the door to two major stages, offering far greater visibility than a standard Women’s Series event.
| Result | Prize money |
|---|---|
| Winner | £15,000 |
| Runner-up | £8,000 |
| Semi-finalists | £4,500 |
| Quarter-finalists | £2,000 |
| Total | £40,000 |
Greaves, Ashton and Sherrock in the spotlight
Beau Greaves will arrive in Blackpool as the highest-ranked player in the field. Her titles in 2023 and 2024 are a reminder of her calibre in this competition, and her total of £45,700 over the qualifying period places her well above the rest of the field. Her quarter-final against Kirsi Viinikainen looks like a match many will initially view through the lens of her status, but the short format means any dip in accuracy can quickly prove dangerous.
Lisa Ashton, meanwhile, arrives as the defending champion. Her first-round match against Rhian O’Sullivan is one of the key fixtures in the draw, as a defending champion is always expected to hit the ground running from the very first legs. Ashton proved in 2025 that she could go all the way in the Empress Ballroom. In 2026, she will have to prove herself again without the benefit of a longer format to find her rhythm.
Fallon Sherrock will also play a special part in the tournament’s narrative. Winner in 2022, runner-up in 2024 and again in 2025, she has already experienced both sides of Blackpool: the title, and then the lost finals. Her quarter-final against Deta Hedman will pit a player well-accustomed to this stage against a debutant in the competition – though by no means a novice at the highest level. It is one of the easiest matches for the public to understand: experience, history, pressure and a major qualification at stake.
Why this Women’s World Matchplay matters
This 2026 edition offers several key storylines for fans. Firstly, it will provide a chance to gauge the true gap between Beau Greaves and the rest of the circuit in a knockout format. Secondly, it will reveal whether Lisa Ashton can build on her 2025 title. It will also provide a key milestone for Fallon Sherrock, who remains one of the most popular figures in women’s darts but will be looking to turn her recent finals appearances into another trophy.
Finally, the debuts of Deta Hedman and Vicky Pruim add an element of unpredictability to the draw. Hedman brings a rare combination of experience and longevity, whilst Pruim arrives on the back of recent form, having won her first Women’s Series title in May and reached a decisive final in Event 13 to secure her qualification. In the space of a single afternoon, Blackpool could therefore deliver both the expected confirmation and a shake-up in the hierarchy of the PDC women’s circuit.
