Martijn Kleermaker takes children to possibly last big stage appearance at Grand Slam of Darts: 'We started the process together several years ago"

Martijn Kleermaker announced last week that he is thinking of taking a break from his career. 'The Dutch Giant' wants to give more attention to his children after his relationship with their mother broke down in late 2022.

Kleermaker is a father of two sons and his children visit their father every other week. However, lately the Dutchman often had to leave for darts when the children were scheduled to visit him. That started to bother him more and more.

''My parents are always there, but if you barely perform at tournaments and can go home after one round, at some point you do ask yourself: what am I doing it for? I might as well have been doing fun things with my kids. That is mentally difficult. You pile disappointment on disappointment and then you look ahead: do I want such a torture another year?", Kleermaker asks himself in conversation with the Algemeen Dagblad.

Kleermaker came right out with an answer to that question. That answer was no. ''The Dutch Giant'' yearns for rest for himself and the kids. ''I'm still young (32 years old, ed.) so it's time to rest and come back later better than ever.''

If Kleermaker fails to secure a qualification spot at the World Darts Championship qualifying tournament, the Grand Slam of Darts (Nov. 11-19) may become his last big stage performance for the forseeable future.

He therefore immediately called his children's school after he placed for the Grand Slam of Darts to ask if the two sons could get a week off to go with him to Wolverhampton.

''We started the process together several years ago. If you then temporarily stop now, you also want to end it together in a nice major. I'm doing it for them. I don't have to prove myself anymore. On the one hand they like it that I'm quitting, on the other hand they don't. They think it's cool that dad is famous and gets to go to such great tournaments,'' Kleermaker said.