Jeffrey de Graaf has made an excellent start to the new season of the PDC Nordic & Baltic Tour. The Dutchman, who has been living in Sweden for several years, won the opening tournament in Latvia.
The
PDCNB Tour consists of a series of ten tournaments and is open to players from Scandinavia and the Baltic states. The top two players are eventually invited to compete in the World Darts Championship.
De Graaf managed to qualify for last year's tournament at Alexandra Palace this way and eventually even made it to the third round there. Despite holding a PDC Tour Card, the Stockholm resident may try again this year to qualify for the World Darts Championship via the alternative route.
The 33-year-old De Graaf won consecutively over Arni Agust Danielsson (6-3), Michael Ladefoged (6-4), Claus Bendix Nielsen (6-3), Mikkel Knudsen (6-5) and Darius Labanauskas (6-1) to qualify for the final. He was then too strong in the final, 6-1, for his Finnish opponent Jani Laurila.
Results PDCNB Pro Tour 1
Quarterfinals
Mattias Jönsson 6-3 Oskar Lukasiak
Jani Laurila 6-2 Vladimir Andersen
Jeffre de Graaf 6-5 Mikkel Knudsen
Darius Labanauskas 6-5 Teemu Harju
Semi-final
Jani Laurila 6-4 Mattias Jönsson
Jeffrey de Graaf 6-1 Darius Labanauskas
Final
Jeffrey de Graaf 6-1 Jani Laurila