Historic evening in Milton Keynes: Beau Greaves was the first woman to win an open tournament on the PDC tour and thus made darts history.
The British woman, just 22 years old, triumphed in the eleventh event of the Players Championship on Monday. In the final, Greaves defeated former world champion Michael Smith 8:7 and decided the match with a 142 checkout.
“I can’t believe it, I’m so proud,” beamed Greaves after her coup: “I had a really difficult start to the year. This is a complete shock.”
In doing so, Greaves even refuted her own assumptions. As recently as 2024, she claimed that women could “never keep up with men.” She “just don’t think we’ll ever be good enough to compete against players like Luke Humphries, Michael van Gerwen and Luke Littler.”
On the way to winning the tournament, Greaves had eliminated two other former champions with enormous experience in the Scotsman Gary Anderson and the Englishman Rob Cross.
Greaves made darts history back in February
It was only at the end of February that Greaves managed the first nine-darter by a woman on the PDC tour in a duel with the Austrian Mensur Suljovic.
“I couldn’t believe I threw it,” the three-time women’s world champion said at the time. After the decisive throw, she “couldn’t stop smiling” and couldn’t wait to tell her father about it. He was definitely watching.
Greaves, who is taking part in the ProTour for the first time this year as a tour ticket holder, had previously narrowly missed a nine-darter several times, according to her own statement.
“It was nice to finally throw one. It’s great to be the first woman with a nine-darter on the PDC ProTour and I’m glad that it could also be seen on the live stream,” she commented on her feat.
Now the 22-year-old has once again achieved something historic – and thus raised expectations for the upcoming World Cup.
