Mikuru Suzuki (鈴木 未来, Suzuki Mikuru, born 5 February 1982) is a Japanese darts player. She was a two-time back-to-back British Darts Organisation (BDO) women's world champion. She plays in both World Darts Federation (WDF) and Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events.
| Mikuru Suzuki | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Nickname | "The Miracle" | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | 5 February 1982 Kagawa Prefecture, Japan | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Home town | Takamatsu, Kagawa, Japan | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Darts information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Playing darts since | 2011 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Darts | 【target】THE MIRACLE SWISSPOINT G1 24g | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Laterality | Right-handed | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Walk-on music | "Baby Shark" by Pinkfong | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Organisation (see split in darts) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| BDO | 2016–2020 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| PDC | 2019– | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| WDF | 2016– | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Current world ranking | (WDF W) 20  (5 September 2022)[1] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| WDF major events – best performances | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| World Ch'ship | Winner (2): 2019, 2020 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| World Masters | Quarter Final: 2017, 2018 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| World Trophy | Quarter Final: 2019 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Australian Open | Runner Up: 2019, 2022 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Dutch Open | Winner (1): 2019 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| PDC premier events – best performances | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| World Ch'ship | Last 96: 2020, 2024 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Grand Slam | Group Stage: 2019, 2020 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Other tournament wins | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Medal record
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Career
editSuzuki 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,[citation needed] winning many mainly soft-tip tournaments in Asia before becoming BDO World Champion aged 36 in 2019.[citation needed]
BDO titles
editIn 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.
PDC
editSuzuki qualified for the 2020 PDC World Darts Championship by winning a women's qualifying event. In the first round she was against James Richardson. She came from 0–2 down to bring it back to 2–2 but lost the deciding set in a 2–3 defeat.
Suzuki participated in PDC UK Q-School in 2020, but was unable to obtain a tour card after losing to Nathan Rafferty.
In 2021 Suzuki won one PDC Women's Series event but failed to qualify for the 2022 PDC World Championship.
In 2022 Suzuki reached the final in five PDC Women's Series events but didn't win any of them.[3]
In the third PDC Women's Series event of 2023 Suzuki ended Beau Greaves 70 match winning run in PDC Women's Series events by beating her 5–4 in the quarter final.[3] Suzuki then beat Trina Gulliver 5–0 in the semi final and Rhian O'Sullivan 5–1 in the final.[3]
Suzuki qualified for the 2023 Women's World Matchplay by being in the top 8 of Women's Series order of merit at the cut off point. This was her debut at the event.[4] She reached the final but lost 1–6 to Greaves.
In total Suzuki won three PDC Women's Series events in 2023 and qualified for the 2024 PDC World Darts Championship.
World Championship results
editBDO/WDF
edit- 2019: Winner (beat Lorraine Winstanley 3–0)
- 2020: Winner (beat Lisa Ashton 3–0)
- 2022: Second round (lost to Aileen de Graaf 1–2)
PDC
edit- 2020: First round (lost to James Richardson 2–3)
- 2024: First round (lost to Ricardo Pietreczko 0–3)
References
edit- ^ "WDF Women's Rankings Table". WDF. 5 September 2022. Retrieved 5 September 2022.
- ^ a b 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.
- ^ a b c "Greaves' PDC Women's Series streak ended as Suzuki shares titles". PDC. Retrieved 14 December 2023.
- ^ Gorton, Josh (24 July 2022). "Super Sherrock wins inaugural Betfred Women's World Matchplay title". PDC.tv. Professional Darts Corporation. Retrieved 14 December 2023.