Beau Greaves has revealed she is still wrestling with self-belief during her opening foray on the PDC Tour — despite a CV that already includes a landmark win over Luke Littler and a first Players Championship title. Speaking on the Weekly Dartscast, Greaves looked back on the night she defeated the world number one 6-5 in the semi-finals of the PDC World Youth Championship in Wigan, a result she credits as the catalyst for everything that has followed.
That victory came shortly after Littler had thrashed Luke Humphries to win the World Grand Prix, and the then 18-year-old was the overwhelming favourite to add the World Youth Championship title to his collection. Greaves, though, produced an 11-darter to get the job done, averaging 105 to Littler's 107.4 and saving her best for last to confirm her spot in the final. "To be fair, I played really well throughout the whole day," she recalled. "I remember from my first game through to playing Luke, I was really steady and consistent."
Littler, who won the title in 2023, was gracious in defeat. "Fair play to Beau. All the best in Minehead. Some talent," he said. Greaves went on to lose to Gian van Veen in the final, but the win over Littler was one to savour. "Obviously, knowing Luke was there, you're kind of expecting him to just smash everybody, and he was doing that," she said. "I didn't know I was going to play him at that point, but the game was obviously incredible. I think I played really well and he played really well, so I think that kind of made it good as well. When I beat him, he had played extremely well. It wasn't his best game, as we know, but he had still played to a really difficult standard to beat."
Since then, Greaves has taken to the PDC Tour like a duck to water. She has become the first woman to win a Players Championship title while also debuting on the European Tour, defeating Daryl Gurney in Prague to make more history. She sits eighth in the race to Minehead and is set to feature once more in the Grand Slam of Darts. Reflecting on the 6-5 win in Wigan, she said: "Beating him, in a weird way, gave me a lot of confidence. It made me think that maybe I could actually start believing in myself a bit more and go on to play on the Pro Tour. It made me think that you can beat literally anybody because, you know, it doesn't get much better than him, does it? Sometimes I've just got to remind myself that I can do it when things are going wrong. But yeah, the game was amazing, and the crowd was massive as well. There were a lot of people watching that game, so it's a good memory to look back on."
That day in Wigan also confirmed her as a Tour Card holder for 2026. In only her first year on tour, she sits 70th in the Post World Championship Order of Merit. "I'd obviously gone into that weekend knowing that I was in one of the spots," she continued. "I think I knew that if I got in, I would have a Tour Card, but I didn't know I'd actually got it until I'd finished playing that day. My sister went on Facebook and said, 'You've got your Tour Card,' and I was like, 'Oh, nice. I didn't know. Oh, great,' kind of thing. Then, obviously, going in the next day, people were congratulating me. It was amazing, but I felt like I was ready for it in a way."
Greaves insists she has always done things at her own speed, never rushing into anything. "Like I say, I've always done things at my own pace, but I suppose there comes a time when you have to push yourself and start backing yourself," she said. "That's something I've learned since having a Tour Card: you have to believe in yourself, and you have to believe you can win all the time. It's something I'm still kind of convincing myself to believe in." That belief is paying off, but there is still so much more to achieve and learn. "I think darts is just such a hard game to play consistently, but I'm getting there. It's going well. I would never have not taken it, so yeah, it's gone really well. You've just got to believe in yourself, haven't you?"
