"He did great at the Belgian Darts Open" - Raymond van Barneveld very happy for practice partner Jermaine Wattimena

Jermaine Wattimena did an excellent job at the Belgian Darts Open last weekend. Raymond van Barneveld noticed that, too.

Wattimena successively defeated Daryl Gurney, Ross Smith and Joe Cullen in Wieze. In the quarterfinals, he eventually had to lose to Luke Littler after a high-stakes match.

"I have a lot of contact with Jermaine," Van Barneveld told Viaplay. "The opening day of the tournament he called me briefly. They all throw high averages against me," he said. "Then I told him to just keep throwing consistently between 96 and 98 and he'll win matches. And eventually he did, he was extremely happy with his performance in Belgium."

So is Van Barneveld Wattimena's coach? "No, not that, but we sometimes train together and we just get along. Jermaine is someone particularly talented."

"In the quarter-finals, Littler was briefly a size too big for him, but he had a particularly nice tournament," concluded 'Barney'.