“I see that smile on his face and all of that disappears” – Proud Dirk van Duijvenbode seals a major victory over a genuine world‐class opponent with help from his young son

After his sensational win over Luke Humphries at the World Series of Darts Finals, Dirk van Duijvenbode offered a striking explanation for the calm he felt on stage. His three-year-old son Levi sat in the players’ box with his wife Saskia and proved a major influence on “Aubergenius”. Van Duijvenbode dug deep at AFAS Live and edged Humphries 10-9 in a deciding leg.

“I think I'll hire him,” Van Duijvenbode joked on Viaplay when asked about Levi. “I felt nice and calm with my throw. When I was feeling the pressure, my big friend, let’s put it that way, kept me calm in my head. It made me really relaxed."

Several times during the match Van Duijvenbode was seen smiling towards his son. “Then I see him and I throw the double out. And sometimes you hit a really good finish and then... then he just doesn’t fall asleep.”

Those cheerful moments meant more than a fun family outing. Van Duijvenbode admitted he hasn’t always shown on stage what he wants to lately.

"Let's put it this way: I'm a very good darts player, but I'm not showing what I can do. That also comes from the pressure and certain things. I can't tell you why it is."

Levi’s presence helped him let go of certain thoughts. When asked which thoughts exactly, Van Duijvenbode kept his cards close to his chest, but he did explain the effect.

"You just have thoughts that put pressure on you. Everyone experiences that at some point in their life. If someone says, 'You don't need to be stressed, Dirk, you don't need to be nervous'... If you could simply follow that advice, you would never be nervous. But that's not how life works."

With his son, that feeling did disappear. "Everyone has their own things, and that's why you get nervous. I see that smile on his face and all of that disappears. All those thoughts aren't there anymore."

On the oche, Van Duijvenbode was satisfied too, though not everything clicked. His maximum hitting wasn’t where he wanted it early on. "My 180s weren't fantastic. Both darts weren't in the right place. There's a little bit of wind here. It wasn't all going fantastically."

He also felt he could have squeezed more from a few scoring visits. Still, he stayed with Humphries throughout. "I also thought Luke was throwing pretty well. I was too. It will have been around a hundred average. He probably was too."

After the second break Humphries seemed to seize control. Van Duijvenbode admitted his opponent was slightly better in that spell, but he refused to buckle. “After the second break, he was actually a little bit better. And at some point I still managed to get him. In the end, it's a very big victory for me."

He added the result wasn’t entirely against the run of play. Humphries found key finishes where the Dutchman had missed earlier. "If you switch all of that around... I thought 7-5... If it had been 6-6, you wouldn't have said, 'How can it be 6-6?' I didn't think it was completely undeserved either."

Just as Humphries looked set to pull away, Van Duijvenbode found a way to reset. "I did feel that after the second break he was getting a little bit on top of me. And somehow I managed to recover."

In the decider he kept his nerve. Double 16 sealed the 10-9 victory and a place in the quarter-finals.

Afterwards Levi was allowed on stage, and he stayed close during the interview too. Van Duijvenbode quickly mapped out his Saturday evening. "I'm just going to chill. I'm going to have some food with my big friend. There is family here and there are friends, so maybe I'll take them out for dinner if they want to."

It won’t be a late one. Van Duijvenbode is back on stage in Sunday’s afternoon session and sees a clear benefit in also having played on Saturday afternoon. "I'm going to bed early, because tomorrow is an afternoon session. That's just an unbelievable advantage. Tonight I've got the adrenaline out of my body, I've chilled out and I want to sleep peacefully."

He even expects to be in bed before Saturday night at AFAS Live wraps up. "I think I'll already be in bed before the last match is finished. So you simply have a big advantage in terms of rest."