The draw for the 2024-25 PDC World Championship draw was made on Monday, with British prodigy Luke Littler set for a possible clash with Fallon Sherrock should she win her first-round contest.
Littler, the No. 4 seed for the sport's showpiece tournament, enters the competition in the second round owing to his ranking.
Sherrock rose to fame at the 2019 edition of the PDC event after becoming the first woman to win one (and then two) World Championship matches, earning her the moniker "Queen of the Palace" in reference to the Alexandra Palace venue in London where the matches take place.
Sherrock takes on fellow Brit Ryan Meikle in the opening round.
The seedings mean Luke Humphries, the world No. 1 and defending world champion, cannot face 17-year-old Littler in what would have been a repeat of last year's final.
Humphries will play either Thibault Tricole or Joe Comito in round two.
Humphries and Littler also met in Sunday's Players Championship final, which saw Humphries claim another prize pot with an 11-7 win. The two have played 12 times since last year's final, with Littler winning eight.
Littler, from Runcorn in the north of England, became a household name during his fairytale streak at last year's World Championship. He has since won 10 senior titles, including the Premier League and the Grand Slam of Darts.
The PDC World Championship runs from Dec. 15, 2024, to Jan. 3, 2025.
PDC World Championship draw in full:
First section:
(1) Luke Humphries vs Thibault Tricole/Joe Comito
(32) Raymond van Barneveld vs Nick Kenny/Stowe Buntz
(16) James Wade vs Jermaine Wattimena/Stefan Bellmont
(17) Peter Wright vs Wesley Plaisier/Ryusei Azemoto
(8) Stephen Bunting vs Alan Soutar/Kai Gotthardt
(25) Dirk van Duijvenbode vs Madars Razma/Christian Kist
(9) Damon Heta vs Connor Scutt/Ben Robb
(24) Mike de Decker vs Luke Woodhouse/Lourence Ilagan
Second section:
(4) Luke Littler vs Ryan Meikle/Fallon Sherrock
(29) Ritchie Edhouse vs Ian White/Sandro Eric Sosing
(13) Danny Noppert vs Ryan Joyce/Darius Labanauskas
(20) Ryan Searle vs Mensur Suljovic/Matt Campbell
(5) Rob Cross vs Scott Williams/Niko Springer
(28) Gian van Veen vs Ricardo Pietreczko/Xiaochen Zong
(12) Nathan Aspinall vs Cameron Menzies/Leonard Gates
(21) Andrew Gilding vs Martin Lukeman/Nitin Kumar
Third section:
(2) Michael Smith vs Kevin Doets/Noa-Lynn van Leuven
(31) Krzysztof Ratajski vs Richard Veenstra/Alexis Toylo
(15) Chris Dobey vs Stephen Burton/Alexander Merkx
(18) Josh Rock vs Karel Sedlacek/Rhys Griffin
(7) Jonny Clayton vs Mickey Mansell/Tomoya Goto
(26) Daryl Gurney vs Florian Hempel/Jeffrey de Zwaan
(10) Gerwyn Price vs Kim Huybrechts/Keane Barry
(23) Joe Cullen vs Wessel Nijman/Cameron Carolissen
Fourth section:
(3) Michael van Gerwen vs James Hurrell/Jim Long
(30) Brendan Dolan vs Chris Landman/Lok Yin Lee
(14) Gary Anderson vs Jeffrey de Graaf/Rashad Sweeting
(19) Ross Smith vs Jim Williams/Paolo Nebrida
(6) Dave Chisnall vs Ricky Evans/Gordon Mathers
(27) Gabriel Clemens vs Niels Zonneveld/Robert Owen
(11) Dimitri van den Bergh vs William O'Connor/Dylan Slevin
(22) Martin Schindler vs Callan Rydz/Romeo Grbavac