THE PDC Women’s Series returns this weekend, with more than 100 players set to take part across two days of action at Milton Keynes’ Marshall Arena.
The expansion of the PDC Women’s Series in 2023 will see 24 events held across six weekends, including a total prize fund of £240,000 – doubling the prize money per event to £10,000.
Teenage sensation Beau Greaves dominated the opening weekend of the 2023 Women’s Series in February, claiming a hat-trick of titles at Leicester’s Morningside Arena.
Greaves also scooped eight consecutive titles in the latter stages of 2022, which ensures that she will make her debut in the eight-player Betfred Women’s World Matchplay in July.
Japanese sensation Mikuru Suzuki is also poised to make her big stage bow in Blackpool, having ended Greaves’ remarkable 70-match winning run with Event Three success earlier this year.
Suzuki has appeared in seven of the last 12 Women’s Series finals dating back to August 2022, and both Greaves and Suzuki will be among the stars headlining Events 5-8 on May 13-14 – with coverage being streamed on PDCTV throughout the weekend.
Four-time Women’s World Champion Lisa Ashton is also among the entrants, as the Lancashire veteran bids to book her Winter Gardens return this summer – with just two weekends remaining before the cut-off for Women’s World Matchplay qualification.
The 52-year-old has won a record 14 Women’s Series titles since the tour’s inception in 2020, and has also competed in the PDC’s World Darts Championship on four occasions – more than any other female player.
Ashton is currently third in the provisional Women’s World Matchplay qualification race, with reigning champion Fallon Sherrock further adrift in seventh spot.
Sherrock will be competing on home soil in Milton Keynes this weekend, and since her last Women’s Series appearance she has landed a nine-darter on the Winmau Challenge Tour – becoming the first woman to achieve perfection in a PDC event.
Sherrock overcame Katie Sheldon, Lorraine Winstanley and Aileen de Graaf to lift the inaugural Women’s World Matchplay title, and Winstanley and De Graaf are both in line to secure their returns to Blackpool.
The pair occupy fifth and sixth spots respectively, with Welsh star Rhian O’Sullivan in fourth, and Kim Holden in eighth position following her run to February’s Event Two decider.
The quartet will be in attendance at the Marshall Arena from May 13-14, alongside former World Championship qualifier Deta Hedman, ten-time Lakeside Women’s Champion Trina Gulliver and the likes of Laura Turner, Anastasia Dobromyslova and Corrine Hammond.
There is currently less than £500 between a qualifying place and the 34th player on the rankings. Womens Series finalist Natalie Gilbert lies just behind World Master Aileen De Graaf with both being less than £300 off a Blackpool place.
Events 5-6 will take place on Saturday May 13, before Events 7-8 round off the weekend’s action on Sunday May 14, with live coverage available on PDCTV.
The top eight players on the rolling Women’s Series Order of Merit after Event 12 will qualify for the 2023 Betfred Women’s World Matchplay, which takes place on Sunday July 23 at the Winter Gardens.
Meanwhile the top two players from the final PDC Women’s Series Order of Merit will qualify to compete in the 2023/24 World Darts Championship, alongside the winner of the 2023 Betfred Women’s World Matchplay.
Entry, costing £25 per event, is available through the PDC Entry System, with entries set to close at 1400 BST on Thursday May 11.
New players must register their details at this link. Following your registration, you will receive an email to confirm that you are available to enter tournaments, and at this stage you can login to make your entry to the relevant events. This verification may take up to 48 hours.
—–ENDS—–
Images: PDC
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