“Chaotic preparation has cost me dearly” – Dirk van Duijvenbode laments early World Championship exit

Dirk van Duijvenbode had likely envisioned his 2026 World Darts Championship very differently. The Dutchman, who was seen beforehand as the clear favorite in his second-round tie against the Englishman James Hurrell, was surprisingly knocked out on Saturday afternoon. Van Duijvenbode eventually lost 3-2. After the match, a visibly dejected “Aubergenius” faced the press.

Speaking to Viaplay, he was candid about what went wrong, being particularly critical of himself and his preparation. “This is a hard blow,” he said, disappointed.

Van Duijvenbode started the Worlds with confidence, but that feeling faded early on matchday. According to the darter, things went wrong in the build-up, which usually gives him structure. “I’m a man of preparation,” he explained. “If that’s right, I know I’ve done everything possible. But this time it wasn’t.”

The cause, Van Duijvenbode said, was uncertainty about the schedule. He assumed he would play at 3:00 PM, while his match eventually was slated an hour earlier. “I had it in my head that I was playing later, but that turned out not to be the case. As a result, I lost half an hour of preparation,” he sighed. As if that wasn’t enough, the earlier matches also finished quicker than expected. “That cost me even more time. In total I lost about an hour, and I never managed to reset that in my head.”

That restlessness plagued him throughout the match. Van Duijvenbode admitted he never felt fully comfortable on stage. “It just stayed unsettled. That feeling didn’t go away,” said the 33-year-old Dutchman. Still, he did not want to shortchange his opponent. “Despite that, I still could have won, but he was simply good as well. You have to acknowledge that.”

Although Van Duijvenbode pointed to his preparation as the main cause, he mainly looked at his own performance. He felt he left too much on the doubles in particular. “I missed too many doubles, and at this level you’re punished mercilessly for that,” he said. “I might not entirely agree with it, but if you’re honest, then the defeat is deserved.”

A striking moment in the match was the missed double that could have made it 2-2 in the deciding set. At that point, the crowd made itself clearly heard with booing for the first time. “I hadn’t experienced that the whole match,” he said. “Maybe I should have taken a bit more time then. You don’t expect that boo and it throws you for a moment.” The darter visibly continued to wrestle with the moment. “I still don’t fully understand it.”

The disappointment for Van Duijvenbode was significant. He admitted this early exit hurts a lot, especially given the expectations he had of himself. “I kept believing, until the end. But ultimately you have to be honest: he was better than I expected, and I was quite a bit worse than I expected from myself,” he concluded. “That really hurts a lot.”

For Van Duijvenbode, the defeat means an abrupt end to his World Championship campaign. Instead of a deep run on the Alexandra Palace stage, disappointment and self-reflection now prevail. One thing is clear, though: the Dutchman will take this harsh lesson into the future. “This is a hard blow,” he repeated. “But moments like this are part of elite sport.”