Aspinall urges Greaves to embrace the spotlight

NATHAN ASPINALL has urged Beau Greaves to “put herself out there” away from the oche and grow her profile.

The world No16 believes Greaves has the ability to compete for the sport’s biggest prizes but wants her to embrace the spotlight off the stage too.

Greaves, 22, claimed her THIRD Women’s World Matchplay trophy at the Winter Gardens on Sunday after edging Sherrock 6-5 in a thrilling final.

The Doncaster star has enjoyed a history-making year, becoming the first woman to win a PDC ProTour crown at Players Championship 11.

She has also hit a nine-darter on the PDC Tour and became the first female player to qualify for a European Tour event.

But Aspinall believes Greaves can take another step forward by looking at Sherrock’s rise after her breakthrough at the 2020 World Championship.

Sherrock became the first woman to win a match at Alexandra Palace after beating Ted Evetts and Mensur Suljovic before reaching the last 32, where she lost to Chris Dobey.

Her heroics saw her become a household name, with the ‘Queen of the Palace’ later appearing on shows including A Question of Sport.

Speaking exclusively to [247Bet](https://www.247bet.com/en-gb/sports), Aspinall believes Greaves can follow a similar path.

He said: “Beau’s a really nice lady away from the oche.

“I just think she needs to get herself out there a bit more. I've tried to get her on some of my exhibitions, but she's never really interested in doing it.

“If I were her manager, I'd be telling her to put herself out there a bit more.

“My advice for her would be to look at Fallon [Sherrock].

“What a great woman Fallon is, a great player, but she gets herself out there too.

“She does the exhibition work, she does the media, and she does the TV opportunities like Bullseye.

“I don't know why Beau doesn’t want to get involved in that stuff.

“Maybe she's quite a nervous person?

“But I just think Beau needs to take that next step now, to grow her popularity, which will only help her game.”

The Asp believes Greaves can break new barriers in the sport and become the first female player to win a PDC major title.

Greaves showcased her ability on the big stage at last year’s UK Open, reaching the fourth round before suffering a thrilling 10-7 defeat to Luke Humphries.

He added: “Yes, Beau is an incredible, unbelievable player. I said that even before she won a Tour Card that she was going to be the first lady in our game to break into the top 32 in the world. And I still stand by that.

“It's tough for her because, obviously, she's still got to qualify for European Tours at the moment.

“I think that when she gets high enough in the ProTour rankings, and she's got immediate entry into all the European Tours, then she will smash the top 32.

“She's so good at this game. She’s already won a ProTour event this year, which is something no woman's ever done.

“I’m not going to lie, she scares a lot of the top boys on the tour. No one wants to draw her. At the Worlds last year, no one wanted to be the one to get her in the first round, and that's a testament to how good she is.

“I don't see why she doesn’t go on to compete for something like the World Matchplay or the World Championship, because I believe the hardest tournament to win is the ProTour event.

“I know it's not on screen, and there's no crowd or anything, but those days are absolutely brutal. I've played about 200 of them, and I've only won seven. They are so hard.

“One big problem that Beau has is that she's probably not used to playing games of that magnitude, as in that length.

“A lot of the men are used to playing long-format games. She's probably not at that stage yet, but in time she certainly will be. So yeah, I think she can win a major. I really can.”

Words: Aaron Nijjar

Image: Taylor Lanning

Follow Oche180