Van der Voort on Van Gerwen: "If he puts darts first, within a year he's World Number One"

Vincent van der Voort is through to the third round at the PDC World Darts Championship after breezing past Adam Hunt in a game which saw neither player at their best.

Van der Voort said he had a crisis of confidence of sorts going into the game practicing at the Alexandra Palace.

"I didn't play well. I said before I came in this building and first three darts were 140, 180, 100 and I thought this is really good and then they asked me to go on stage to have a couple of practice darts and I had 30 darts and I didn't hit a treble. I thought what's going on here," said Van der Voort post match.

"I asked Mervyn King did you have the same experience as me. He said you have to practice on this board and I went to his board and smashed that treble. They have to replace that immediately."

"But then I came on stage and same thing, it felt so different to the practice board. It was really annoying me."

Next up is James Wade and he admitted a better display will be needed in order to see off the Machine.

"After my performance, I'm not near to say I'm going to beat him. I have to improve a lot and that's only on my mind and if he beats me when I'm playing well, fair play to him."

As Michael van Gerwen's closest ally, Van der Voort also spoke about his close friend and believes he can return to the top.

"Don't get me wrong, Gerwyn Price is an amazing player. Where he came from and in that time what he's done, it's unbelievable. But I've known Michael since he was 15, 16, 17 years old, I've never seen anything like that, he didn't do anything about his darts for 16 months. He's practicing now and he's going to be better. If he puts darts first instead of everything else, within a year he is World Number One."

It is another Christmas in the UK for the Dutch Destroyer and he said due to traditions being different back home, it isn't a big deal.

"I love it," he joked. "Christmas is not that big of a thing in Holland. We've got Sinterklaas on 5 December so it's not that big a deal. The World Championship is something we have to work for, we have to make sure everything else is not important."