Van der Voort on potential further open draw tournaments barring UK Open: "There are too many of them, one is fine"

Vincent van der Voort did not have an ideal preparation prior to his fourth round at the UK Open, but still managed to reach the fifth round thanks to a 10-5 victory over Jermaine Wattimena.

"I think it all went my way'', Van der Voort told DartsNews afterwards. "It is difficult to prepare when you have to play your first match so early (after the draw). You hear at five o'clock (English time, ed.) who you have to play against and then play at seven o'clock. That was a bit stressful. After that, I took care of myself and I think I played a good game in the end."

The Dutchman watched the draw together with Michael van Gerwen. Based on the draw, Van der Voort could guess on which stage he would end up, but then he was told that his match was scheduled first on the streaming board.

"It took some adjusting. You always hope that you are not the first. Other players have already played a match, the top-32 not. But I was the first to play and then you have to adapt. It was an immediate switch and I think I did that well.''

The UK Open is a unique tournament on the PDC calendar because of the use of an open draw. Would it be an idea to use this more often, for example in the floor tournaments?

"There are too many of them, one is fine. You have to protect someone who is doing very well and has earned his ranking. I don't think it is good to do an open draw at every tournament.''