Fallon Sherrock setting sights on Gerwyn Price at World Championship

Fallon Sherrock is getting “goosebumps” at the prospect of returning to Alexandra Palace and has targeted a third-round World Championship meeting with defending champion Gerwyn Price.

The 27-year-old created history in 2019 by becoming the first woman to win a match at the showpiece tournament on her way to the last 32 where her life changed forever.

She quickly became a household name and was thrust into the spotlight after her breakthrough achievements, appearing on breakfast news and evening chat shows.

Sherrock did not qualify last year but has had a fine 2021, reaching the final of the Nordic Masters and the quarter-finals of the Grand Slam of Darts and now wants a crack at Price.

She will have to beat Steve Beaton and Kim Huybrechts first, but she is feeling confident.

“This year, I have got Gerwyn in my draw, I really want to play the world champion,” she said ahead of this year’s tournament, which begins on Wednesday.

“I have had the privilege of playing the Lakeside world champion (Wayne Warren) this year so I would love to play the PDC world champion to see what run for his money I can give him.”

On her return to Alexandra Palace, she said: “I have amazing memories, I had so much emotion.

“I was so excited to begin with then I was nervous and then the adrenalin was running.

“Afterwards I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, there was so much going on. It was like a whirlwind, I was so tired because I was being thrown from one place to the other.

“There was one day where I was doing from the morning breakfast shows right through to the evening and it was absolutely knackering, but I enjoyed every single minute of it.

“Playing at the Ally Pally, the buzz, the electric atmosphere, it still gives me goosebumps, that is why I am so excited to get back.

“I am so excited to go back, I want to relive all the moments from two years ago and hopefully create more.”

For as long as she continues to blaze the trail for women in the sport Sherrock knows that she will be big news. But she longs for the day where her wins are seen as normal.

“I want to be Fallon the good darts player not the woman who is beating the men,” she added.

“But I think it is going to take a while before that happens because the world we are in now, when there is something new happening it is a massive deal.

“It will eventually calm down, but I just want to be seen as Fallon the good darts player.”

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She is in a much better place coming into the tournament thanks mainly to her run in Copenhagen where only a come-from-behind victory by Michael Van Gerwen denied her a maiden PDC title.

“I think I am more prepared now, I am more experienced and prepared and able to put everything to the back of my head, ignore the expectations and everything like that,” she said.

“I have got mentally stronger, I think my game has got better, I am more determined, life’s too short, you don’t know what’s around the corner, I don’t want to waste any opportunity I get now so I will go all guns blazing to get as much as I can.

“(My 2021) is definitely a good thing, it has boosted my confidence and it has made me realise what level I can play against.

“Going into this event, I am used to the stage, it is totally different from last time, I am more prepared and I am more mentally focused and I have an ambition now.

“I want to get further than I did last time and play the world champion, that would be a privilege.”