Van Duijvenbode wasn't expecting to get through on World Grand Prix debut: "It was like the only thing I was sure of is that I'm flying back Wednesday morning"
Dirk van Duijvenbode came through a scrappy opening match on his debut at the World Grand Prix against Mensur Suljovic who was out of sorts given his recent form.
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Van Duijvenbode was left disillusioned in terms of his darts admitting that despite winning, he didn't know where his darts were going and that his practice game was diminished when he reached the stage.
"Not even frustrated, at some point you think I don't even know where my darts are going. I told my mate I had no idea where my darts were going, I've been practicing very well the last two weeks," said Van Duijvenbode to Online Darts post match.
"I practiced with Danny (Noppert) this morning and went 180, 180 twice in the first five minutes and I felt awesome. Then I came back and nowhere near."
In terms of his rise in the rankings, the Dutchman doesn't see it as unexpected, he sees it as taking his chances.
"It didn't feel like I played better than I can do. It felt like I finally showed what I can do, then we had the break of three months and it's hard to get back to the feeling. Years before, if you look at my averages I didn't play higher averages than the year before but I performed better in way of winning. I took the match darts where I usually miss them."
'The Titan' was due back at work on Wednesday and now has to rethink his travel plans after booking a flight out on the same morning.
"I had to book a return flight because it was expensive to book one-way. So it was like the only thing I was sure of is that I'm flying back Wednesday morning and if I win, it doesn't matter if I don't have it."
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