"I am confident that they are definitely not against me" - Dimitri van den Bergh plays down whistles from crowd at Dutch Darts Championship

Dimitri Van den Bergh has qualified for the third round of the Dutch Darts Championship. 'The Dreammaker' defeated Ross Smith 6-4 in the second round, despite his opponent hitting a perfect leg with a nine-darter in leg 7.

For Van den Bergh, it is only the first time this year that he has reached the final day of a European Tour tournament. "That's a nice feeling that I finally succeeded," the 29-year-old Belgian opened to Darts Actueel. "I feel good and am once again playing with confidence. Ross was the seventh seed here so I am proud to have been able to win against him. I quickly got out to a 4-0 lead, but with Ross you're never done. On top of that, he also threw a nine-darter. However, I never panicked when I saw him come back, I always stayed calm and satisfied that I could still finish it."

Van den Bergh still had some kinesio tape taped to his arm. "Indeed, I still have some discomfort with my arm, but obstacles are there to be overcome. So I certainly don't want to invoke it as an excuse," he explains of the situation. "I have a very good team behind me, who help me with all those things. The fact that I've also been living in Belgium again recently certainly helps with that. I only have to call and they are with me within the hour."

At the end of the game though, the recent UK Open winner was subject to some boos and whistling as he was throwing. "I don't think the crowd was really against me, it was more because of the tension that they started whistling," van den Bergh says however, playing down the situation. "I always experience a lot of support here in the Netherlands and I have a lot of fans here as well. So I am confident that they are definitely not against me."

In the third round on Sunday afternoon, van den Bergh will face off against the German number one, Martin Schindler for a place in the quarter-finals.