Dirk van Duijvenbode sealed a 10-9 deciding-leg victory over Luke Humphries at the World Series of Darts Finals, then revealed his three-year-old son Levi was the secret to his composure on stage. Levi sat in the players' box with Van Duijvenbode's wife Saskia at AFAS Live, and "Aubergenius" admitted the toddler's presence proved a major influence on his performance.
"I think I'll hire him," Van Duijvenbode joked on Viaplay when asked about Levi. "I felt nice and calm with my throw. When I was feeling the pressure, my big friend, let's put it that way, kept me calm in my head. It made me really relaxed." Several times during the match Van Duijvenbode was seen smiling towards his son. "Then I see him and I throw the double out. And sometimes you hit a really good finish and then... then he just doesn't fall asleep."
The Dutchman admitted he hasn't always shown his best on stage lately. "Let's put it this way: I'm a very good darts player, but I'm not showing what I can do. That also comes from the pressure and certain things. I can't tell you why it is." Levi's presence helped him let go of certain thoughts. "You just have thoughts that put pressure on you. Everyone experiences that at some point in their life. If someone says, 'You don't need to be stressed, Dirk, you don't need to be nervous'... If you could simply follow that advice, you would never be nervous. But that's not how life works."
With his son, that feeling disappeared. "Everyone has their own things, and that's why you get nervous. I see that smile on his face and all of that disappears. All those thoughts aren't there anymore."
On the oche, Van Duijvenbode was satisfied but critical. "My 180s weren't fantastic. Both darts weren't in the right place. There's a little bit of wind here. It wasn't all going fantastically." He also felt he could have squeezed more from a few scoring visits, though he stayed with Humphries throughout. "I also thought Luke was throwing pretty well. I was too. It will have been around a hundred average. He probably was too."
After the second break Humphries seemed to seize control. "After the second break, he was actually a little bit better. And at some point I still managed to get him. In the end, it's a very big victory for me." He added the result wasn't entirely against the run of play. "If you switch all of that around... I thought 7-5... If it had been 6-6, you wouldn't have said, 'How can it be 6-6?' I didn't think it was completely undeserved either."
Just as Humphries looked set to pull away, Van Duijvenbode found a way to reset. "I did feel that after the second break he was getting a little bit on top of me. And somehow I managed to recover." In the decider he kept his nerve, sealing the 10-9 victory with double 16 and a place in the quarter-finals.
Afterwards Levi was allowed on stage and stayed close during the interview. Van Duijvenbode quickly mapped out his Saturday evening. "I'm just going to chill. I'm going to have some food with my big friend. There is family here and there are friends, so maybe I'll take them out for dinner if they want to." It won't be a late one, with Van Duijvenbode back on stage in Sunday's afternoon session. "I'm going to bed early, because tomorrow is an afternoon session. That's just an unbelievable advantage. Tonight I've got the adrenaline out of my body, I've chilled out and I want to sleep peacefully." He even expects to be in bed before Saturday night at AFAS Live wraps up. "I think I'll already be in bed before the last match is finished. So you simply have a big advantage in terms of rest."
