“That was kind of the ultimate revenge”: Niels Zonneveld looks back at Peter Wright European Tour incident

On the podcast 'Double Top' Niels Zonneveld looked back at an incident during the 2022 Belgian Darts Open in his match against Peter Wright.

Zonneveld took on Wright in the second round of the Belgian Darts Open. In a 5-5 tie, the eleventh leg had to bring the decision. "I stuck out my hand before that leg to give him a fist bump, that's pretty much the unwritten rule as respect. But he deliberately refused to give me a fist back," Zonneveld said.

"At the time I had no idea why he did that. During the match I had cheered twice when I won a leg, but surely a two-time world champion should be able to stand that."

Zonneveld still ended up winning the race. "That was kind of the ultimate revenge and did feel three times better," he says. "It still really felt like he wanted to take me out of my game just before that decisive leg."

Talked out

Still, the incident did not leave lasting wounds between Zonneveld and Wright. "No, definitely not. We also just talked it out afterwards behind the scenes. He apologized. He found me annoying during the match, but immediately said he shouldn't have acted like that."

Zonneveld eventually lost a round later 6-3 to later finalist Andrew Gilding.