Van Duijvenbode reflects on darting rise to begin 2020: "I always knew I had it in me"

Dirk van Duijvenbode has been one of the main success stories of this year so far playing brilliantly on the Players Championship circuit to begin the year.

This has been backed up though with Van Duijvenbode having a run to the semi-finals at the Belgian Darts Championship and then a fifth round run at the 2020 UK Open last weekend.

This good performance which backs up his early season promise was not a surprise at all for Van Duijvenbode: “I'm not in the shape of my life. I do exactly what I can. I always knew that I had this in me. When I saw the boys play on television, I thought: I can do that too. But it never came out on stage. Now it does, and I am very happy, "said the 27-year-old Dutchman to NU.nl .

Part of his success can be out down to a change in his practice routine; as well as in particular getting sorted physically. “If I used to train for an hour a day two weeks in a row, then I couldn't throw a dart anymore, so then you stop doing that. On Tuesday competition and at the weekend a tournament, that was it. I have recently invested in osteopathy. That is a bit more expensive, because it is not included in the insurance, but it does help me to perform. "

"The Titan" is known as being an Aubergine farmer away from darts; he said that he has received nothing but support from his boss and that it is good to have the financial security by combining the two. “He gives me the opportunity to train for an hour every day. I don't get paid. I have been doing that for three weeks now and this is the result.

He added: "I have already earned 16,000 British pounds. So then I can also spend it partly on medical things. But I don't feel that pressure. I can pay all my fixed costs. The money from the darts is a nice extra.”

Because of his brilliant walk-on, he has received new legions of fans; but that is not what it is about for him. “I don't play darts to be a cult hero or to get in the picture, but to play as well as possible. The support gives me a boost when I enter the stage. I also don't care anymore what others think of it. In the beginning I received a thousand responses. I read all of them and if there were two negative ones, I felt completely annoyed. ”