Laura Turner is not only looking forward to the men's World Matchplay tournament, but she will also be taking part in the women's event on the iconic Winter Gardens stage.

Defending champion Peter Wright, Dimitri van den Bergh, Gary Anderson, Michael Smith, Michael van Gerwen and Gerwyn Price will all be vying to hold aloft the famous Phil Taylor Trophy in what should be a mouth-watering nine days of action.

Turner chews over her favourite first-round matches and who she thinks will walk away with the title.

But we start with the Women's World Matchplay where Turner will be among several other female players battling it out at the inaugural staging of the £25,000 event with the winner set to walk away with a cool £10,000.

(1) Lisa Ashton vs (8) Chloe O'Brien (4) Aileen de Graaf vs (5) Laura Turner (2) Fallon Sherrock vs (7) Katie Sheldon (3) Lorraine Winstanley vs (6) Rhian Griffiths

My practising has been going really well at home and also trying to get in as much match practice as I possibly can as well. I'm just trying not to overthink it. I know when I've gone into these bigger televised tournaments I tend to let it worry me and kind of nag me a little bit so I'm just trying to stay relaxed, stay confident, just keep on the oche and hopefully everything will work out when we get to that massive stage at the Winter Gardens.

Nervous but really, really excited and looking forward to it.

This Women's Matchplay is a huge opportunity, not just to showcase what we can do at the moment, but also to inspire that next generation, for them to see us up there and think 'I can do that' and 'I want to do that' to pick up a set of darts and try the sport.

If you don't see people doing it then you don't have your heroes, you don't have your inspiration, you don't have that goal to inspire to.

You can perhaps look at women's football at the moment, you've got sell-out stadiums now and five, 10 years ago that would have been unheard of. So to have Sky Sports show the Women's Matchplay, to have the support of the PDC, to have the increased Women's Series, the places in the Grand Slam of Darts, the World Championship, and now this Women's Matchplay, it's just an unbelievable opportunity and I hope we can all do it proud.

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It holds a very special place in the heart of fans and players alike, not just because you're playing in one of the most beautiful buildings in the world but it's one of those no-nonsense tournaments. It's a straight-leg knockout. You have to come out of those blocks straight away or you will be found out.

There is no set-play and there is no time to regroup. It really is just a race to the end and that lends itself to a bit of drama and hopefully we'll see much more of it this year.

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That match between Michael van Gerwen and Adrian Lewis looks set to be an absolute cracker. They last met at The Matchplay back in 2016 believe it or not and they haven't really played a lot against each other over the last couple of years.

Their rivalry expands to over 60 competitive matches against each other and down the years they've produced fireworks, drama, and more importantly, they produce the most entertaining matches. I'm hoping for more of the same.

Lewis is coming into the game off the back of a win at Players Championship 20 and he's really found his form.

We've only seen Van Gerwen play once since winning the Premier League, but hopefully if both these players can find their form and get started quick, then we should be in for an absolute belter.

Joe Cullen vs Damon Heta James Wade vs Martin Lukeman Michael van Gerwen vs Adrian Lewis Luke Humphries vs Nathan Aspinall

You've got the reigning Masters champion and Premier League runner-up, Joe Cullen, taking on the recently crowned World Cup of Darts champion, Damon Heta. Heta finished highest on the ProTour Order of Merit to claim his place.

You've also got Luke Humphries, who's top of the European tour table, taking on Nathan Aspinall.

I wouldn't say Luke was particularly a dark horse because he is winning titles at the moment, but if he hits the floor running I think he could go deep in this competition.

There are several players in there who wouldn't surprise me if they won it. I'd say going into this you've got Michael Smith, Gerwyn Price, MVG, Luke Humphries all in really, really good form.

But if I'm going to go on a limb, then Jonny Clayton just never fails to impress and I think although he dived out early last year I think I'll back him to win it this year.