Danny Noppert begins the year 2025 PDC World Darts Championships as the thirteenth seed. “The Freeze” will face the winner of the fight between Ryan Joyce and Darius Labanauskas in his opening match.
Noppert has never advanced beyond the last 32 places at the PDC World Darts Championships, but in 2017 he did reach the final of the BDO World Championships in Lakeside, where he ultimately lost to Glen Durrant. “I’m definitely looking forward to the World Championships,” says Noppert Sportnieuws.nl. “I’m more relaxed in every way than last year, after all, I’ve just become a father. Now I’m more focused. In the past, I sometimes put a little too much pressure on myself before the World Championships, so doing this was difficult for me. I was just too sloppy in a few games.
Noppert has had a good year, although he particularly regrets the European Championships, where he lost 11-10 to Jermaine Wattimena in the semi-finals. “Before the semi-final, I thought about winning the tournament, it’s true,” admits Noppert. “Especially if you also saw that other semi-final between Ritchie Edhouse and Luke Woodhouse. Back then, I was actually the favorite to win the tournament. But of course these other players were there for a reason too and they had already knocked out some of the top players under their belt on the way to the semi-finals I was sick for a week after not winning the European Championships but eventually you just have to accept it and move on.
Danny Noppert in action
As already mentioned, Noppert will face either Ryan Joyce or Darius Labanauskas in his opening match of the World Darts Championship. “I expect it will be Joyce,” announces the Dutchman. “He has already shown a lot of great things this year and I realize it could be a difficult match. It’s not the most important name, but I’ll have to play solid, and I’m going into this match as a favorite.”
The 33-year-old Dutchman is already thinking about next year. “I would like to win a European Tour tournament one day. I have already played in two finals and once I was really close to the title, so I hope that next year I will do it once,” he sums up.
