Mikuru Suzuki

Mikuru Suzuki (鈴木 未来, Suzuki Mikuru, born 5 February 1982) is a Japanese darts player. She is the two-time back-to-back British Darts Organisation (BDO) reigning women's world champion.

Mikuru Suzuki
Personal information
Nickname"Miracle"
Born (1982-02-05) 5 February 1982
Kagawa Prefecture, Japan
Home townTakamatsu, Kagawa, Japan
Darts information
Playing darts since2011
DartsTarget Signature
LateralityRight-handed
Walk-on music"Baby Shark" by Pinkfong
Organisation (see split in darts)
BDO2016–2020
WDF2016–
Current world ranking(WDF W) NR (13 December 2020)[1]
BDO majors – best performances
World Ch'shipWinner (2): 2019, 2020
World MastersQuarter Final: 2017, 2018
World Darts TrophyQuarter Final: 2019
PDC premier events – best performances
World Ch'shipLast 96: 2020
Grand SlamGroup Stage: 2019, 2020
Other tournament wins
TournamentYears
Ladies Dutch Open2019

Career

Suzuki is an experienced soft-tip darts player, having competed in many tournaments and professional tours in her home country of Japan, as well as across east Asia. She began playing darts in her late twenties, winning many mainly soft-tip tournaments in Asia before becoming BDO World Champion aged 36 in 2019.

BDO titles

In 2018, Suzuki qualified for the 2019 BDO World Darts Championship as a qualifier, where she caused a huge upset by defeating the reigning champion and number two seed and four-time champion Lisa Ashton in the first round, 2 sets to 0. At the Quarter-Final stages of the championship, she defeated Dutch player Sharon Prins by the same score to reach the Semi-Final. In the Semi-Finals, once again by 2 sets to 0, she defeated Maria O'Brien, keeping her Lakeside record of dropping no sets fully intact to reach her first BDO World Darts Championship final on her debut. She went on to defeat Lorraine Winstanley 3–0 to win the title on her debut year. She did not drop a set en route to the title, and only lost two legs in the Final.[2] Former professional darts player and current pundit Chris Mason said of her victory on Eurosport that: "She is the Phil Taylor of the ladies' game. He raised the bar for the men, this is the same for the ladies' game."[2] Suzuki was also the Ladies' Singles winner in the 2019 Dutch Open.

Suzuki retained her BDO title in 2020, beating Lisa Ashton in the 2020 BDO World Darts Championship final.

Future plans

Suzuki participated in PDC UK Q-School in 2020, but was unable to obtain a tour card after losing to Nathan Rafferty. After losing narrowly to retired darts legend Phil Taylor in a virtual Sky Sports game during the COVID-19 pandemic, Suzuki indicated that she intends to play in events around the world once the crisis is over and accepts it may be necessary for her to move to the UK in order to pursue her dream of obtaining a tour card and playing in PDC events.[3]

World Championship results

BDO

PDC

References
  1. "WDF Women's Rankings Table". WDF. 13 December 2020. Retrieved 13 December 2020.
  2. Lanning, Phil (January 12, 2019). "Mikuru Suzuki dubbed 'Phil Taylor' of ladies darts after historic Lakeside triumph". Live-Darts. Archived from the original on January 13, 2019. Retrieved January 13, 2019.
  3. "Flash in Japan- Darts World Exclusive". Darts World. Retrieved 6 August 2020.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.