"That final actually came a little unexpected" - Jeffrey de Graaf reacts to recent Pro Tour improvement

Jeffrey de Graaf has been in excellent form lately. Early this month, the Dutchman, who now represents Sweden, almost even won a Players Championship tournament.

De Graaf somewhat surprisingly reached the final of the tenth Pro Tour tournament of the year. There, in Hildesheim, he eventually lost 8-4 to Brendan Dolan. "That final actually came a little unexpected," De Graaf said to the podcast Double Top. "It was with me those two days. The day before I won a difficult match against Cameron Menzies, he missed seven matchdarts and I was able to take advantage of that. Other than that I won some exciting games and that did make me play with the necessary confidence."

De Graaf already cited it, those close matches seem to be something he thrives in. "Yes, that's true, I don't win easily that often. But regularly it is also down to myself, that I still make it unnecessarily exciting," he said.

"So in several matches I was ahead 4-2, then suddenly threw a bad leg and so it often became exciting again. Also in the semi-final against Krzysztof Ratajski I had a big lead, but at 6-5 it became exciting again. Fortunately I was able to finish it off. In the final, however, Dolan was too strong," he assesses honestly.

De Graaf only captured his PDC Tour Card early this year, returning to the Pro Tour for the first time since 2018. Due to his strong performance in recent months, he has already climbed to 86th in the world rankings.