Zonneveld quits job: ''I want to put everything on my darts career''

Niels Zonneveld was one of seven Dutchmen who captured his Tour Card at Q-School last week.

Zonneveld lost his Tour Card after finishing last year. "Surely it caused extra pressure this time. I definitely wanted to recapture that Tour Card immediately. Last time I participated in Q-School I was much more relaxed, then I started without high expectations and that Tour Card was actually a bit unexpected," Zonneveld told Darts Actueel.

The 24-year-old Dutchman needed one or two more points on the final day. "I was particularly nervous in the morning. Luckily I won those first matches, afterwards I could play a bit more relaxed but I wanted to play the game fairly and did my best in every match and even made it to the semi-finals in the end."

Zonneveld was extremely disappointed to lose his Tour Card at the end of last year. "I do think of myself that I belong among the best 64 in the world. Maybe I didn't get everything out of it in recent years. I trained particularly hard towards the World Championship, but it didn't come out there. Then I continued to train extremely hard with the confidence that it would succeed at Q-School."

Until recently, Zonneveld worked two days at an accountancy firm in addition to darts. "But I have stopped that now, I want to put everything on my darts career and see how far I can get in the world rankings.

Zonneveld can also occasionally be seen as an analyst on Viaplay. "I do enjoy doing that. It is sometimes difficult to analyse, because you don't want to say the same thing over and over again. That's why it's nice that I can give some background information about the players."