“I push it away” – Niels Zonneveld focused on wins, not World Grand Prix pressure as he starts strong in Basel

Niels Zonneveld booked his place in the last 32 of the 2025 Swiss Darts Trophy on Friday afternoon, coming through a testing opener against Czech qualifier Dalibor Smolik with a 6-3 victory. The Dutchman overcame a shaky start and the pressure of potential World Grand Prix qualification to keep his campaign alive in Basel.

The match began on the wrong note for Zonneveld, who missed three darts at double in the opening leg. Smolik pounced to take a 1-0 lead, but his opponent refused to panic. “I think he’s a good player. The name doesn’t always say anything,” Zonneveld explained afterwards. “I actually searched him on the internet because I didn’t know what to expect. In the end I saw he’d been averaging 93, 92, 91 to qualify for this. So I thought, okay, I have to play my A-game to beat him. And I did, so I’m really happy with that.”

Zonneveld quickly steadied himself, levelling with a 66 finish before both players held throw. The turning point came in leg five, when Smolik missed three darts at doubles and the Dutchman clinically took out 83 for the first break. A 14-darter followed as Zonneveld moved 4-2 ahead. Smolik continued to hang on, but a 15-darter stretched the gap to 5-3 before Zonneveld wrapped it up in style to seal his passage through to a second-round meeting with Ryan Searle.

With Basel providing the final chance to grab qualification spots for the World Grand Prix, the wider stakes are clear. Yet Zonneveld insisted he is trying to block out the noise. “I push it away, because I don’t think it helps. Of course I know it’s there, but I just want to win. I want to win games to qualify for Euro Tour 1 and 2 next year, because I think that’s really important,” he said.

“If I go far enough and qualify for the World Grand Prix then that’s fantastic," he concluded. "But I’ll need a bit of luck and to play well, like I know I can. Still, it’s not my main goal right now, because thinking about it won’t help me.”