Momo Zhou believes “men will be under pressure” in World Darts Championship
Momo Zhou in action (credit:Kelly Deckers/PDC)
New oche queen Momo Zhou admits men will be “under more pressure” if they are drawn to play a woman in the World Darts Championships.
The PDC recently announced that there would be at least two female entrants into the sport’s show-piece event at Alexandra Palace in December.
Zhou, who resides in Dandong, made her big stage debut in the Betway World Cup of Darts for China, following in the footsteps of legendary Russian Anastasia Dobromyslova.
Now, she has set her sights on qualifying for the World Championship and believes the women’s game is just as strong as the men’s.
“I think its almost the same because darts doesn’t require a high physical condition,” said Zhou. “It’s good and actually I think that men have more pressure on them when they play against women.
“I would love to play in the World Championship one day. Your dream has to be big.
“I just want improvement, and I’ve come here to learn something, get more experience and bring that back to China, share with other players.
“Darts in China is not hugely popular yet, but in the last two years more and more people have started to play, and more darts clubs have opened. I’ve been playing in PDC China tournaments now for a couple of years too.”
Remarkably, Zhou only started playing five years ago and although the Chinese soft-tip star went out to Switzerland at the first hurdle in Frankfurt, she did take out a double and even managed to celebrate a Swiss miss.
She added: “I started playing in 2013, when I was 22 years old. There was a bar in my home town of Dandong which had a soft-tip darts machine – my friends were playing and asked me to join them.
“My inspiration is the Japanese darts queen Matsumoto Megumi. I hope I can now inspire. I hope I can give the confidence to female players to show them that in darts there is not such a big difference between male and female players.
“In China I already inspired the new generation of female player after I won several events within last few months and this is a new chance for me.”
