“It's something I've been wanting for the past three years” – Adam Sevada overjoyed with first North American title and World Championship berth

Adam Sevada has firmly established himself as North America’s new number one. The 40-year-old American was crowned winner of the North American Darts Championship at the Madison Square Garden Theater, securing spots at the Grand Slam of Darts and the World Darts Championship. Afterwards, the newly minted champion was mostly overwhelmed by disbelief.

“There are no words to describe it,” Sevada told Online Darts shortly after his emphatic tournament win. “I'm absolutely speechless. It's something I've been wanting for the past three years and I finally got it. It's amazing. It may hit me tonight, but not right now.”

Sevada was the standout performer of the tournament in New York. After opening with an average of just over 102, he carried that form into the semi-final and the final, where he beat Jim Long 6-1. He himself barely concerned himself with statistics.

“After my first match, I didn't know what the averages were because I don't look at averages. The W is all that matters. I had a 102 average and everything just felt great.”

The confidence remained in his second match as well. “The second match felt great as well. It probably wasn't quite as good as the first match, but I felt that if I continued performing like that, I wasn't going to lose.”

On the CDC Tour, Sevada had already shown regularly in recent years what he can do. Yet criticism often surfaced that he couldn’t translate that level to the big stage. In New York, he proved the opposite. “I'm not trying to prove anything to anybody except myself,” the American stated firmly.

“To be fair, I don't really care what anybody says. The media are going to say whatever they want. It's no secret that I've generally performed better on the floor than on stage, but to transfer that onto the stage today was absolutely amazing.”

According to Sevada, he knew early in the day it could be his tournament. That feeling arose after his very first visit of the opening match.

"That's crazy that you said that because I thought the same thing after I hit that 140. I thought, 'I think I've got this.'"

He stressed it had nothing to do with arrogance. “Not to be cocky or anything, but everything just felt good all day. I was talking to somebody backstage about it. Sometimes you have a bad day, sometimes you have a good day where everything just flows and everything keeps going. I don't know what it is, but as long as it keeps going, it's great."

The day before, Sevada had a disappointing evening at the US Darts Masters. He admitted he was quite frustrated with his play afterwards. “Yes, that definitely gave me extra motivation,” he acknowledged. “Yesterday was terrible. I don't really want to talk about it because it's in the past. Today was today.”

Sevada said the real priority was always the North American Darts Championship. “To be fair, last night doesn't matter. Yes, we all want to win, but today, for us North Americans, this is what really matters.”

That was evident in the preparation. When asked if he had adjusted anything after his poor showing a day earlier, the answer was simple. “I didn't do anything differently. It's darts—we all know how darts goes. Last night I averaged 77 against Jim Long in my first match. I prepared exactly the same way today. It is what it is.”

With his title, Sevada immediately secured a place at the Grand Slam of Darts and the World Darts Championship. As a result, he no longer has to worry about qualifying via the CDC ranking.

“It's comfortable because the pressure's off,” he admitted. “Coming into this year, I felt like I needed to finish number one. Now that pressure is gone, it's a great feeling.”

His first reaction even sparked some laughter. “I'm not going to attend any CDC events anymore—I'm just going to stay home and work,” he joked, before laughingly conceding he would probably reconsider that.

After all the tension, Sevada is mostly looking forward to a quiet day in New York. “I'm going to be a tourist tomorrow. Eat some steak, relax, sleep in a little bit and see what happens. New York is crazy.”

The fact that Madison Square Garden provided the stage for his biggest win to date makes the achievement even more special. “Just playing in Madison Square Garden is incredible. You immediately think of Mike Tyson, Muhammad Ali, the New York Knicks… So much sporting history has been written here.”

He laughed when Tyson came up. “I don't bite anybody's ears off.” Then he turned serious again. “I said the first time I came here that it's one thing to be a spectator at Madison Square Garden, but to actually perform here is amazing. It's iconic.”

During the final, it was noticeable that a light haze occasionally hung over the stage. Sevada noticed it too, but refused to let it distract him. “It did get a little thick and hazy up there to the point where it was harder to see.”

It didn’t have much impact. “There's nothing you can do about it. What are you going to do—have reverse air conditioning to suck all the smoke out?”

Whistling fans didn’t break his concentration either. “The whistling didn't really bother me, but the haze definitely built up. I don't know where it came from.”