Klaasen disappears from PDC ProTour after 15 years following European Q-School disappointment

Jelle Klaasen will not play on the PDC ProTour for the first time in 15 years after losing in the second round on the final day to Ronny Huybrechts at European Q-School.

In the past three days he lost in the first round each time, as a result of which Klaasen closed Q-School with zero points.

He lost his Tour Card after last season, in which he missed participation in the World Darts Championship for the second year in a row. This year he is missing for the first time since his switch to the PDC in 2007 on the Pro Tour.

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The 37-year-old Dutchman had his best years at the PDC halfway through the last decade. In 2015, Klaasen reached the quarter-finals at the World Grand Prix and European Championship, after which he managed to reach the semi-finals at the 2016 World Darts Championship. 

During that tournament, The Cobra won against Phil Taylor, among others, before the later world champion Gary Anderson proved too strong in the semi-finals.

After his strong performance at the World Championship, Klaasen also made it to the last four at the UK Open and the quarter-finals at the European Championship. It saw him return to the Premier League Darts in 2017, eight years after his baptism of fire in the prestigious darts competition.

However, his return to the Premier League Darts was disrupted by a tendon infection in the wrist, for which Klaasen received anti-inflammatory injections that allowed him to continue playing. However, that could not prevent Klaasen from being eliminated from the Premier League Darts after the first half of the season.

Since then, Klaasen also slowly started to slide down the world rankings. For a moment, The Cobra seemed to have things back on track when he reached the quarter-finals at the UK Open in 2020. However, that event turned out to be the last major tournament of his season. In the past year, Klaasen played at the UK Open and Players Championship Finals, but lost his first match in both cases.

Due to missing out on the World Darts Championship, Klaasen fell out of the top 64 of the PDC Order of Merit. Now that he has not been able to regain his Tour Card, he is left with participation in the Challenge Tour this year. In addition, Klaasen can participate in the Euro Tour associate qualifiers that are open to players without a Tour Card.