Kleermaker set to bring nine-year old son Djani to PDC World Darts Championship: "An extra push to realize that you have to perform"

Martijn Kleermaker starts the PDC World Darts Championship on Wednesday, Dec. 21. The 31-year-old Dutchman will take on Xicheng Han in his opening match.

The World Darts Championship has been underway since last Thursday. Kleermaker is therefore eager to play his first match. "It's starting to itch. In the training sessions I am also just a little bit sharper, as if I can now go the extra mile. That is the magic of playing at a World Championship," says 'The Dutch Giant'.

Kleermaker is leaving today by train for England, in the company of his 9-year-old son Djani. "He has been asking for a whole year: dad, if you go to the World Championship He's a real enthusiast, he gets leave from school and is totally into it now. We are also in the players' hotel together. He now also keeps shouting at school that he is going with dad to the World Darts Championship. He is going to feast his eyes on the venue and really enjoy the entourage at Alexandra Palace. I think it's great fun. You never want to disappoint your kids, of course. That gives extra motivation, an extra push to realize that you have to perform. And besides, I can show him what London is really like."

Last year, Kleermaker reached the fourth round on his debut at the PDC World Darts Championship and he has a good eye on it this year as well. "I feel like something great can happen in London, I'm mentally and physically balanced. But you have to be realistic. With a quarterfinal I am already very happy, especially after a changeable year. But strange things always happen at the World Cup. I look at it round by round. I have to win: how that happens doesn't interest me."

His opponent in the first round, Chinese Xicheng Han, does not know Kleermaker. "I can find particularly little about that as well. There is zero information about him. That could be a good sign. It's also nice that I then have to look for it in myself and send him back to China as soon as possible."

Still, Kleermaker is wary. "Behind the big names are a lot of guys who can play darts very well. As a result, there are also always a lot of different winners; not all of them are easy to beat. That's good for the sport and it ensures that we as players have to keep training a lot to be able to compete in the circuit. There are no more 'cronies'."