Friday, July 26, 2024
Column CM135
The Women’s World Matchplay 2024
This year, the Women’s World Matchplay was held for the third time. Among the eight participants was only one debutant – Anastasia Dobromyslova. All other seven women took part for at least second time. The venue again was not as full as for the men’s World Matchplay but interestingly enough the press room was spilling over, mostly with photographers. Far from all stayed for the men’s final.
Let’s first have a view on this debutant!
Anastasia Dobromyslova
Born: 26. September 1984
Lives in: Ellesmere Port, England
Darts: 22g
Nickname: From Russia with Love
Walk-on-Music: Bring Me to Life (Evanscene)
Anastasia Dobromyslova is the only debutant in this year’s Women’s World Matchplay – which shows that the leading female darters play on quite a consistent level. Dobromyslova qualified for the first Women’s World Matchplay in 2022 but when the war in Ukraine started Russian dart players were banned from tournaments. Now she plays under a neutral flag.
Dobromylsova was the first Russian female darts player to get in the limelight and she still is the only one. Before she appeared, Russian darts didn’t exist internationally. But that was not the only reason why she became so well known – she just played on a level on which no other woman had played before.
It is difficult to say whether Dobromylsova, when at her best, played better than for example Lisa Ashton or Fallon Sherrock who came after her. Probably she was not quite as good as Sherrock – at least she didn’t defeat as many men on the big stage.
Dobromyslova started to play darts when she was six, won the World Masters Girls in 2001 and started to become more and more well-known. In 2008, she won the BDO World Championship.
It was a sensation when she qualified by the amateur qualifiers for the UK Open in 2008. She lost first round to Robert Thornton who just had switched to the PDC. As BDO World Champion she was invited to the Grand Slam of Darts in 2008 and 2009. In 2008, she almost defeated Wayne Mardle, which haunted him for several years, and in 2009 she defeated Vincent van der Voort – but in both years did not survive the group phase.
In 2008 and 2009, she somehow managed to qualify for the PDC World Championship and some controversial discussions followed similar to those the PDC support for Fallon Sherrock provoked a few years later.
In 2009 and 2010, Dobromyslova played on the PDC Pro Tour without much success. In the first and so far only PDC Women’s World Championship she lost in 2010 in the semi-finals to Stacy Bromberg. In the same year, she together with Roman Konchikow took part as Team Russia in the PDC World Cup – the first mixed team in the event.
In 2011, Dobromyslova returned to the BDO and again won the World Championship in 2012 and 2013. In 2014, she played another successful year and won a lot of titles.
After this, not much was heard from her. She twice without success took part in the Qualifying School – in 2019 and 2021. Since then, she has played in the PDC Women’s Series.
In her strongest years Dobromyslova played with 100.20 being her highest average. Her highest average on TV was 95.43. She has since never again reached this level – today her normal averages are around 80.
Back to the Women’s World Matchplay…
The afternoon started with the match between the number 1 seed and reigning champion Beau Greaves and the number 8 seed Katie Sheldon. Though she stood on the stage before, Sheldon was nervous and didn’t play at her normal level. It annoyed her very much which didn’t help at all. Beau Greaves said later that she was very nervous before the match as well and it showed as her average was 74.46 – and she missed a lot of doubles too. But she still was good enough to win 4-1 and to progress into the semifinals.
The second match was the best of the quarterfinals. Mikuru Suzuki won 4-2 against Noa-Lynn van Leuwen. I was a little bit disappointed in van Leuwen who had already won a title on the Challenge Tour this year. Besides two 180s she didn’t show much of what she can do while Suzuki played really well and had a respectable 85.72 average – a little bit higher then Sherrock in the third quarterfinal.
Dobromyslova played in the third quarterfinal of this year’s World Matchplay against the winner from 2022, Fallon Sherrock. Dobromyslova looked delighted to be back on the big stage, but she was not good enough to have a chance against Sherrock who played a strong match and was quite clinical on her doubles. Dobromyslova only showed glimpses of what she could do in the past and lost 0-4 to Sherrock.
In the last quarterfinal Lisa Ashton played against Rhian O’Sullivan. It was not a good match from either player who have both shown often enough that they can play better – but in the short format of the quarterfinal there is just no room for mistakes and players must settle very quick. Ashton won 4-1.
The format of the semifinals was slightly longer, and Greaves improved a lot in her match against Suzuki (compared to her quarterfinals match). The reigning champion dominated the match with her 88.02 average and Suzuki didn’t get a lot of chances. She lost 2-5 to Greaves.
The second semifinal was a match of missed doubles from both Lisa Ashton and Fallon Sherrock. The hitting rate on the doubles was from both very far from their usual levels which showed in their under 70 averages. Ashton had a slight advantage in the later part of the match but missed all her six match darts. Sherrock managed to draw 4-4 and won the last leg of the match to progress into the final.
So, in the final the reigning champion, Greaves, and the former champion, Sherrock, clashed (they were seeded number 1 and number 2)…
Greaves started strong and got to a 2-0 lead before Sherrock won her first leg. But Greaves couldn’t be stopped and soon led 5-2. Sherrock managed to win one more leg but on this day Greaves, with her 98.75 average, was just too strong for her – and defended her title with a d6 in the very next leg.
So, once again Greaves earned a place in the PDC World Championships and the Grand Slam of Darts. And also again, she opted not to play in the PDC World Championship, deciding instead to compete in the WDF World Championship. She will take part in the Grand Slam of Darts.
