Players Championship 6: Quarter-Finals for Zonneveld and Van Duijvenbode

Wim Blokpoel - Today was the second of 4 pro tour days, as Players Championship 6 of 2021 was played. Yesterday’s best performance was from Dirk van Duijvenbode who made the quarter-finals. 

Today that performance was equalized by 2 Dutchmen! Dirk van Duijvenbode started today brilliant again averaging 104.2 in a 6-2 win over Alan Tabern. In round 2 Dirk played on stream 2 against two time World Champion Gary Anderson. DVD absolutely demolished Anderson 6-1! In the last 32 Aubergenius averaged 100+ again as he won 6-3 against South African Devon Petersen. In the last 16 Dirk beat Karel Sedlácek 6-3, aa he got into the quarter-finals for the second day in a row! This round was the end for the second time as well though, as DVD lost 2-6 to Cool Hand Luke Humphries. After all another solid day for Dirk van Duijvenbode.

Niels Zonneveld from Uitgeest didn’t win any pro tour match in 2021 yet before today. He did so today, and very impressive as well as he beat former World Champion Rob Cross 6-4! In round 2 Zonneveld won again, as he beat Josh Payne 6-4 on stream. Into his board final Niels Zonneveld played Dave Chisnall. The young Dutchman managed to get another upset as he averaged almost 98 in beating Chisnall 6-4! In the last 16 Zonneveld surprisingly faced Lithuanian Darius Labanauskas, who he also beat 6-2. Into his first ever pro tour quarter-final! Zonneveld there played Jamie Hughes, he missed darts to go 5-4 up and unfortunately lost 4-6 after that but it’s been a brilliant day for the talented Zonneveld!

There also was a third Dutchman in the last 16. Gino Vos made his comeback on the PDC tour as one of the replacements, playing in his first pro tours since 2014. Vos atarted today with a very scrappy 6-4 win against Austrian Zoran Lerchbacher. It didn’t get scrappy in round 2 though, as Vos caused an upset in beating 3 time Lakeside World Champion Glen Durrant 6-4! In his board final Gino Vos beat fellow Dutchman Danny Noppert 6-3. A very good day for Vos came to an end in round 4 as he lost 2-6 to Michael Smith.

It was a succesfull day for Dutch Darts as 3 more Dutchmen made their board final. As mentioned earlier, Danny Noppert lost there to Gino Vos, but before that he beat American Danny Baggish 6-5, and in round 2 The Freeze averages 98.2 to win 6-3 against Andy Hamilton. Vincent van der Voort made his board final again, VVDV had a couple of solid 6-3 wins against Steve Brown and Joe Murnan. In the last 32 Van der Voort got edged out 5-6 by Sedlácek. Jermaine Wattimena improved from yesterday, as he averaged over 100 in a brilliant first round game against Steve West which Wattimena won 6-3. He then had another 6-3 win in round 2, against former Worlds finalist Kirk Shepherd. The third round was the end for Wattimena as well, as he lost 5-6 to Jason Heaver.

3 more Dutch wins. Jeffrey de Zwaan finally got a win again, he had a very comfortable 6-3 victory over German Max Hopp on stream 1, before losing 4-6 to Ricky Evans. Ron the Bomb Meulenkamp won his first round as well, 6-3 against Aaron Beeney. In round 2 Meulenkamp narrowly lost 5-6 to Brendan Dolan. Finally, Martijn Kleermaker won his first pro tour game of the year, he beat fellow Dutchman Jelle Klaasen 6-5. In round 2 Kleermaker lost 3-6 to Mervyn King.

Apart from Klaasen, 6 more Dutchmen lost in round 1. Talent Luc Peters lost on stream 1 4-6 to Irish Keane Barry. Five time world champion Raymond van Barneveld had a tough draw again, he had a 4-1 lead but then lost 4-6 to eventual finalist Humphries. Other loses came from: Maik Kuivenhoven (3-6 vs Bradley Brooks), Lorenzo Pronk (5-6 vs Adam Hunt), Berry van Peer (1-6 vs Hamilton) and Derk Telnekes (1-6 vs Anderson).