The Dutch Open is Back: Wim Blokpoel's Preview

This weekend, the biggest darts event in the world is back, for the first time in over two years: the WDF Dutch Open! The platinum-ranked WDF event, held in the Bonte Wever in Assen, will have over 3000 participants this year, less than in 2020 but still, an enormous amount of players, playing in events for men, women, boys (2x), girls, and paradarts players (2x).

On Friday, the event starts with a Pairs tournament for men, women and paradarts players. Then on Saturday, it continues with the paradarts, men and women events, with the men event going on from the L64 onwards on Sunday, together with the youth events. All finals, and the men’s singles semi-finals, will be played on Sunday afternoon/evening on the main stage, in front of a big crowd full of fans and players!

Not only do the winners of the men’s and women’s titles win one of the most difficult tournaments to win in the world of darts, but they also automatically qualify for the 2023 WDF World Championship at Lakeside!

There’s also a lot of prize money involved, the men’s winner gets 5000 euros, and a deep run in the Dutch Open also gives you a lot of important ranking points for your Lakeside race, and could make you a seed for the rest of the WDF season!

Dutch Open Graphic for Opening of Registration 2022

Now let’s have a small look at the entries list:

There are a lot of familiar faces in the participant list, most importantly we have the new WDF World Champions Neil Duff and Beau Greaves trying to pick up another big trophy. In the men’s event, there’s just one former winner in the field: 2019 champion Richard Veenstra! Flyers will be one of the favourites for the title, after his brilliant run to the last 4 at Lakeside. Other well-known participants are former tour card holders Dean Winstanley, Matthew Edgar and Vincent Kamphuis, very much in form James Hurrell, Lakeside finalist Thibault Tricole and former Lakeside World Champion Jelle Klaasen!

Some old faces make a return to the world of darts as well, including 2007 Lakeside semi-finalist Niels de Ruiter, and Jerry Hendriks who ‘felt like a fish on the stage’ in Ally Pally.

In the women’s event, we have former winners Trina Gulliver, Deta Hedman, Lisa Ashton and defending winner Aileen de Graaf joining World Champion Beau Greaves as favourites for the title! Lorraine Winstanley, Laura Turner and Rhian O’Sullivan will be in contention for the title as well, along with recent WDF winners Anca Zijlstra and Suzanne Smith.

Apart from World Champion Greaves, we also have some other very talented young ladies in the field, for example, Italy’s Aurora Fochesato. Also keep an eye on Lerena Rietbergen and Noa-Lynn van Leuven, two very talented young Dutch ladies who could cause a surprise!

With all these familiar faces and over 3000 participants, it promises to be another amazing edition of the Dutch Open. Unfortunately, former winner Shaun Greatbatch passed away last week at the age of just 52 years old. There will probably be time to remember this great man and darts player, but there will also be plenty of time to party and celebrate the return of the Dutch Open. I myself will be there for DartsWorld Magazine, so expect more about the Dutch Open very soon!