“Then he plays the innocent and that irritates everyone” – Vincent van der Voort on Mensur Suljovic’s “nice tactic”

Mensur Suljovic caused plenty of irritation among his opponents at the last World Darts Championship, and at the start of the Pro Tour season ‘The Gentle’ didn’t make a great impression with his fellow players either, according to Vincent van der Voort.

The former professional says Suljovic has been known for years for his idiosyncratic style of play, which regularly knocks opponents out of their rhythm. On the podcast Darts Draait Door, Van der Voort discussed Mensur Suljovic’s behavior during a match against Justin Hood.

He clearly saw that Hood was annoyed by the Austrian’s pace and demeanor. That was a stark contrast, he said, to Hood’s earlier matches, where he usually doesn’t get distracted easily.

“In that match against Suljovic you could tell he was getting irritated. He didn’t have that at the Worlds. At Ally Pally anything could happen and he just kept smiling. But now you saw he really started to get annoyed. He was pointing at times and midway through the match there was even some back-and-forth.”

According to Van der Voort that reaction is understandable, but it’s also exactly what Suljovic aims for. He describes the Austrian’s style as entirely self-focused. “Suljovic approaches it so that he has nothing to do with anyone else. He plays his own tournament, for himself and his family. What the rest think doesn’t really interest him.”

That also involves a form of mind games, the Dutchman says. “If it suits him, he pretends he can’t speak English. He definitely understands what’s being said, but then he plays the innocent. That winds everyone up. It’s a clever tactic.”

Van der Voort knows from personal experience how frustrating a match against Suljovic can be. In 2019 he caused a stir himself when he pulled out his phone on stage during a Euro Tour match.

“I couldn’t care less,” he said about any regrets over that moment. “You don’t expect them to film you when your opponent has just won a leg. When I saw I was fully on camera, I quickly put it back in my pocket.”

He realized straight away a fine would follow. “You can see that one coming, because they don’t like that.” According to Van der Voort it wasn’t a deliberate protest, but pure frustration and curiosity. “I remember exactly what it was. PSV were playing and were 1-0 down. That’s a rival of Ajax. It was all taking so long, so I thought: I’ll just check. Then I got broken and PSV were suddenly 2-1 up and I was completely done with it. It wasn’t very professional. I’m not proud of it either.”