Top three favourites for Ladies World Title at 2022 WDF Lakeside World Championship

The first edition of the WDF World Championship will be played at Lakeside from April 2-10 in Frimley Green with 24 ladies competing for the World title.

Never before has prize money been so high at a women's world championship. In total they may distribute £87,500, with £25,000 going to the winner. Below you can read our three top favorites.

Officially, Mikuru Suzuki is not the defending champion at Lakeside, but the Japanese ace did win the last two editions of the women's world championship. That was in 2019 and 2020, under the banner of the BDO. That association was later declared bankrupt in 2020, after which the World Darts Federation (WDF) took over the baton for the amateur darts players.

Suzuki is one of the few ladies who shows a solid level on television on a constant basis. The lower limit for her seems to be above 75 average, while she also regularly throws around 85 average.

Suzuki's biggest rival is perhaps Beau Greaves, who she could already face in the quarter-finals. The only 18-year-old Englishwoman still struggled with dartitis last year, but during the Isle of Man Darts Festival in March it was seen that she is hardly bothered by it anymore.

Greaves dominated that event by winning all three singles tournaments. Her averages in those finals; 85, 88 and 99 over a length of five to seven legs. In 2020 she made her debut at the women's world championship. Then Greaves lost 2-1 in the semi-final in sets to the later champion Suzuki.

The most experienced woman in the field is Deta Hedman, who is already going to play her fifteenth world championship. She previously participated eleven times in the women's world championship in the BDO, once in the women's World Championship in the PDC, once in the official PDC world championship, once in the seniors' World Championship.

Hedman already has more than two hundred titles to her name, but a world title is still missing on her list of achievements. In 2012, 2014 and 2016, the Jamaican-born thrower was the losing finalist at Lakeside.

In terms of outside bets, Laura Turner could cause a shock if she dumps out Mikuru Suzuki but would await Aileen de Graaf who herself could emerge.

While for many, Corrine Hammond and Kirsty Hutchinson are seen as two of the best bets to come through barring the main names.

Not all top players are participating in Frimley Green. Three former active world champions are missing and also the most popular player is not there.

Four times ladies world champion Lisa Ashton was in possession of a PDC Tour Card in 2020 and 2021 and therefore could not participate in the WDF circuit, where qualification for this tournament could be earned.

Fallon Sherrock did qualify, but at first she didn't want to play, then she did and finally she didn't want to play at Lakeside. She withdrew again last month, after she had been reinstated only a week earlier. The exact reason for her absence has not been released.

The reason Sherrock was reinstated was because Anastasia Dobromyslova has been suspended by the WDF. Because of Russia's invasion of neighboring Ukraine, Russian and Belarusian players are no longer allowed to participate in WDF tournaments.

That includes three-time world champion Dobromyslova, who despite her Russian nationality has lived in England for years.

The fourth major absentee is ten-time winner Trina Gulliver, who hardly played any tournaments in the qualification cycle. In that period she underwent treatment for alcohol addiction, about which Gulliver gave a candid interview earlier.