Saturday at the Dutch Open, one of my favourite days of the year and as always it delivered:
If possible, it was even more busy than I reported on Friday. I arrived early, having to play at 10 myself. Had a little practice where I threw quite well and even hit a 140 despite the enormous heat that was already in the building so early in the day.
Let’s make it short: my game was absolutely rubbish. First 2 legs my scoring was dreadful and darts were all over the place. At 0-2 down I started to score better, however I could simply not buy a double. Neither could my opponent and by the time he beat me 3-0 my averaged dropped all the way to 32.
Time to forget about that though and move on with other fun stuff! For example I supported my German friend Daniela Dambeck in the ladies tournament, after losing first round last year her main goal was to win a game this year and in fact she even won two!
That meant she reached the last 64 and faced Rhian O’Sullivan! O’Sullivan was way too strong, but for Daniela it was a great experience to play against such a big name and win games and that’s what the Dutch Open is all about!
Also in the ladies event, there was a very special player in action: Mahi Bosmia, who travelled all the way from India to play the Dutch Open! She took on Friday’s pairs finalist Jo Rolls, and had a tough start. At 0-1 down however, Bosmia hit a 113-finish out of nowhere and showed how she can play.
At 2-1 she finished it with a 16-darter! My friend and fellow journalist Merel van Selm is a big supporter of the Asian players, so Merel and I decided to do an interview with Mahi.
It turned out she is only 17 years old! She has the goal to play at Lakeside once, but for now it is all about getting some international experiences.
Bosmia kept on winning and eventually she made it through to the last 16!
There it was again O’Sullivan who stopped a dream run but what a run for the 17 year old Indian in her first international event. We shall see her one more tine as on Sunday there is a girls event for her to play as well!
In the rest of the ladies event we did not have many surprises, apart from Priscilla Steenbergen losing first round. In the quarterfinals, O’Sullivan finally was stopped. It was Natalie Gilbert who beat her!
Our own Dartsworld columnist Gilbert had been playing under the radar away from the stream all day and now it was her time to shine as she completed her dream run by making the final four!
Aileen de Graaf beat her pairs partner Anca Zijlstra to do the same, while Beau Greaves dropped her first leg of the day but still saw off Lorraine Hyde and Noa-Lynn van Leuven who averaged over 104 earlier on, won against Kirsty Hutchinson.
In the final 4, Greaves dropped her second leg of the day but punished all the misses from Van Leuven to make a third consecutive Dutch Open final. De Graaf got the better of Gilbert, to set up a repeat of the 2023 ladies final!
Beau told me she had not played darts at all since winning Lakeside, to make her fabulous weekend even more impressive!
Defending champion Aileen de Graaf said to me she felt the pressure of being the defending champion and playing in front of the crowd all day, as she doesn’t really like being in the picture.
She was not happy with her performances at all but will try to improve for the final to even have a chance against the 2 time World Champion.
The mens event got down to 128 players but even before the event started we lost Mark Barilli and Wesley Harms who both withdrew. In the early rounds saw defeat for a lot more big names including Ron Meulenkamp, Alexander Merkx and recent tourcard holders Brian Raman, Jimmy Hendriks and Tony Martinez!
Welsh nine dart hero Mark Graham, former semifinalists Mats Gies, Stefaan Deprez and Ivo Leeksma, and World Cup finalist Frank Bruns also went out.
At today’s final hurdle, the last 256, the likes of Mario Robbe, Keanu van Velzen and Moreno Blom also departed.
Still a lot of big names standing in the L128 including World Master and top seed Wesley Plaisier, former World Champion Christian Kist, former tourcard holders Mike van Duivenbode, Vincent Kamphuis, Damian Mol and Danny Jansen and last year’s semifinalist Arjan Konterman.
Whilst those will be some of the title favorites, watch out for some outsiders in last year’s quarterfinalist Dennie Olde Kalter, last year’s boys winner Sydnee de Vries, Berry’s brother Carlo van Peer and Switzerland’s Thomas Junghans.
My 5 names to watch for:
First of all Jerry Hendriks, who felt like a fish on the ally pally stage. Jerry had a ton plus average on Saturday and whon is looking sharper than ever. Second, former quarterfinalist Johan van Velzen who also was one of the best players of Saturday. Patrick Maat who had a lot of success last year at Modus and local tournaments might go under the radar and Kristiaan de Boer – also fresh from making the Modus finals night it – is overdue success in the WDF.
Last but not least, former Modus champions week runner-up Mareno Michels who is one of the most experienced players in the field.
Any of the mentioned players could win, and grab the Lakeside spots along with the victory. Time for the final day.
—-Ends—–
Words and Images: Wim Blokpoel
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