Chris Dobey v Fallon Sherrock: World Darts Championship 2019/20 preview – Queen of the palace eyeing historic hat-trick
Fallon Sherrock aims to extend her ground-breaking debut run in the PDC World Championship by putting Chris Dobey to the sword in Round Three at Alexandra Palace on Friday.
Sherrock has stolen the show at this year’s William Hill World Championship and is likely to be the stand-out story of the tournament regardless of what happens from here on in.
The 25-year-old sent shockwaves through the sporting world when she became the first woman to defeat a man in a PDC World Championship courtesy of her deciding-set triumph over Ted Evetts, before backing it up with a sensational 3-1 scalp of world number 11 Mensur Suljovic.
The 2015 women’s world finalist has made headlines worldwide and has been thrust into the limelight as a new trailblazer for women’s sport, but has taken it all in her stride so far.
Sherrock has already secured the biggest pay-cheque (£25,000) ever picked up by a female darts player but will not be content to stop there and will hope to feed off the vociferous support of the Ally Pally crowd in a bid to made headlines once again.
She is now looking to pick up from where she left off by pulling off what would be another monumental upset when she takes on world number 22 Dobey.
Sherrock’s stunning finishing (68.75%) proved the undoing of Suljovic, and any repeat performance could spell danger for Dobey – who will also be forced to contend with 3,000 fans rooting for his opponent.
Like Evetts and Suljovic, Dobey enters the contest as huge odds-on favourite and will look to shake off any early nerves with an assured start in the first two sets.
The Bedlington ace, who made his Premier League debut as a ‘Contender’ in February before going on to reach two major Semi-Finals this season, is bidding to reach the Last 16 at Ally Pally for the second successive year.
Dobey averaged 96.3 in a 3-2 victory over Ron Meulenkamp in his opener and now faces a test different to anything he will ever have experienced on a televised stage previously.
The 29-year-old is renowned for his consistent scoring power and composure under pressure and will look to press home those traits over the extended format, with Sherrock having previous never contested a match beyond the best of five sets.
This will be the first competitive meeting between the two, with either world number six Daryl Gurney or three-time BDO World Champion Glen Durrant awaiting the winner in the Last 16.
The match gets underway from around 3.45pm GMT and will be contested over the best of seven sets, best of five legs per set.
A tie-break will be in operation, where the final set must be won by two clear legs. If the score reaches 5-5, the 11th leg will be sudden-death.
