Daniela Dambek was inspired from initial PDC Women's Series tournaments: "I saw it and said, 'I want to play a tournament there"

The PDC Women's Series is attended mostly by British players, but Germany's Daniela Dambek is one of the participants who hails from continental Europe.

In the tenth tournament of the season, she made it to the Last 16, where she lost 4-0 to Mikuru Suzuki. Reaching the last sixteen was a huge boost for Dambek, who has only been serious about her sport for two years.

''Many years ago I first watched darts. Many more years ago, we had a project week at school and I threw a few darts, but then it was over. After Phil Taylor's last world championship (2018, ed.) I bought a dartboard, but I only played sporadically, so not with ulterior motives. I just threw a few darts on it a few times a week," The Tower, her nickname, told dartsnews.de in an interview.

"Actually, it was only during the Corona period - like many others - that I had more time and started playing more. I would say I have been playing every day since 2021 and have been playing tournaments since last year, less than a year ago. I try to play every day now and catch my tournaments everywhere.''

In addition to local competitions and tournaments in Germany, Dambek is now competing in the Women's Series. That gave her the opportunity to meet Lisa Ashton. "I would love to meet her privately, too," Dambek said.

Dambek's first participation in the Women's Series took place last year. "I saw it and said, 'I want to play a tournament there. Women's Series sounds good, PDC always sounds good, you can participate in that'. But before that I had never played a tournament, so of course that was a little naive. Then I played two other tournaments before entering the Women's Series. I ended up being glad I did. Last year I lost my matches anyway, but then I would have played even worse.

Since then, she has seen a tremendous development with her game, in Dambek's own opinion. ''I write down my matches and see how the curve is slowly but surely going up.''

With the lesser-known players, The Tower manages to show her best game, but against the top players she has more trouble doing so. That also happened, for example, against Suzuki during PDC Women's Series 10.

"It was like, 'This is Mikuru, two-time world champion.' You just have to enjoy that now. You know it anyway. Come on, be honest with yourself, you can't handle her anyway'. I had set myself a goal before I went to the tournament, if I get one of the big women as an opponent, I want to try to somehow get under 200 in the legs played. Then I'm already satisfied. And I actually managed to do that, except for one leg against Mikuru."

"You have to remember that for me darts is a hobby and it should be fun and you shouldn't be too fanatical about it. That's what I would say to anyone who darts. I don't make my money with it, I'm happy with my prize money when I get it. And if I don't get it, I learn from it and do better next time,'' Dambek said.