Fallon Sherrock was at the centre of the sporting world during her historic run at the World Darts Championship when Michael van Gerwen passed on some important advice.
Fallon Sherrock has recalled a vital piece of advice she received from Michael van Gerwen during her history-making performance at the World Darts Championship.
Sherrock continues to be known as the Queen of the Palace thanks to her run to the third round at Alexandra Palace in 2019. By beating Ted Evetts in round one, she became the first woman to beat a male player at the PDC’s premier event.
She then incredibly defeated former World Matchplay finalist Mensur Suljovic before eventually bowing out to Chris Dobey. Sherrock briefly became one of the most in-demand stars on the planet, receiving numerous interview requests from around the world and even getting messages from sporting royalty like tennis icon Billy Jean King.
However, the clamour for her time became too much at one stage, prompting three-time world champion Van Gerwen to intervene. Addressing how she handled the media attention, Sherrock told Wayne Mardle’s Club 501 show: “It was really scary because I’m not the sort of person to put myself out there.
Being put left, right and centre in every interview… bearing in mind my interviews at the time were shocking. I really couldn’t speak in an interview. I was like ‘er, yes, no, yes’. “Michael actually said to my manager, ‘you need to let her prepare, she’s got a really important game’. Because we were getting carried away with it, we stopped everything [media duties] for one or two days.”
Meanwhile, Sherrock, who is hoping to return to Ally Pally for the 2024/25 World Championship, believes women’s darts would benefit if players went up against men more often. Sherrock, who remains the only female to beat a man at the PDC World Championship, added: “If the women actually put in the effort and the practice and actually played against the men more regularly, then they would get up to that standard.
That’s why I keep saying we need more opportunities to play against the men because doing so will make our game better. I think female players might be scared to play against men on a regular basis.
“They’re comfortable just staying in their own little league and they’re happy just to compete against each other. If they pushed themselves then they’d see just how much their game could actually improve.”
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