02/05/2024

"A Tour Card? I certainly do not consider impossible" - Vincent van der Voort enthusiastic about Noa-Lynn van Leuven's Pro Tour debut

Thanks to her good results on the Challenge Tour, Noa-Lynn van Leuven is set to make her debut on the PDC Pro Tour.

Van Leuven gets to compete at Players Championships 9 and 10 next week. "She just earned it. Certainly if you can win a Challenge Tour," said fellow darter and expert analyst Vincent van der Voort. "That's just the best amateurs competing, about 250 or something like that."

Players Championship 9-10 participants led by Anderson, Van Gerwen and Price as Noa-Lynn van Leuven makes historic ProTour debut

"Fallon Sherrock played last year and Lisa Ashton has had a Tour Card. So nobody will have a problem with that. You just have to play who you have to play against. Period. The novelty is kind of off. In the beginning, of course, it was a thing," Van der Voort continued. "Now they compete often, including at the World Championship. By now there are so many men who have lost to women, it's not special anymore. Maybe others see it differently, but I don't think it's such a big thing."

Lisa Ashton remains to date the only lady to ever capture a PDC Tour Card. Can Van Leuven follow in her footsteps? "Never say never. She also beat some really good names then, who had a Tour Card before or are close to it now. So I'm certainly not going to say she can't."

WDF to continue allowing transgenders in women's darts citing no significant or convincing scientific evidence that a transgender person has any advantage

Van der Voort does see an important difference between the Challenge Tour and the Pro Tour. "When you come walking to the board and you play against someone in the top ten in the world, it has an impact. Some deal with it easier than others," he explains. "But I do think it does something to someone."

"I remember when I made my debut. Then you see Phil Taylor, Eric Bristow and John Lowe walking around. I was a youth player then, but of course that's impressive. That you are among them. Beforehand you only saw them on television. Now you get to play against them yourself."