Vincent van der Voort has expressed his understanding for Danny Noppert's candid message following his World Grand Prix exit, saying he would rather players speak honestly about what is going on. Noppert endured a particularly frustrating night at the World Grand Prix, where he was distracted by stage issues during his match and explained afterwards that his ADHD played a part. Dutch interest at the World Grand Prix ended with the exits of Niels Zonneveld and Noppert. Zonneveld had chances against Luke Humphries but ultimately lost 3-0, while Noppert lost to Ryan Joyce in the second round.
Speaking on the Darts Draait Door podcast, Van der Voort said he could understand how something like that can heavily affect a player. "No, you noticed pretty quickly that there was something wrong with the stage, which made him irritated. And he couldn't get it out of his head either. The most difficult thing, I think, is that he was consciously aware that it wasn't working anymore. That it just wouldn't leave his head," Van der Voort said. He added that he does not want to pretend he knows exactly how that feels. "You'd have to experience it yourself to know whether that's the case or not. But I thought it was honest of him. It's good that he says it. I'd rather everyone just honestly says what's going on."
The podcast then debated whether a match should be temporarily halted when a player indicates there is a genuine issue with the stage. Van der Voort doesn't see why that should be impossible. "Actually you should just say, okay, we're going to come off the stage and they can have a look to see if they can fix it. Then surely it can just be repaired. But you have to at least ask." He added that if something is simply loose, they should at least check whether the problem can be resolved. "If a screw is loose, then it can just be repaired, right? But you should at least ask about it."
Van der Voort speaks from experience. During his playing days he encountered a stage that wasn't quite right. After a quarter-final against James Wade he had to go back on stage for the semi-final. "I stepped onto the stage. Exactly where I put my foot, I could feel a bump. So I thought, you know what, that's not happening to me again." He went to the caller to raise the issue. "I went to the writer — to the caller — and I said, 'There's a bump there.' He walked over to it. He said, 'Correct.' And then called, 'Continue.'" To Van der Voort's astonishment, nothing was done. "Absolutely nothing. He said, 'Continue.' Then I went and sat there and lost 6-0 to Taylor."
It wasn't the only time Van der Voort had problems with the playing environment during his career. The podcast also mentioned a match against Jermaine Wattimena where the oche wasn't set straight. Van der Voort remembered the incident. "I asked about that thing... If you keep standing on one side, it starts to stand crooked. So I said to him, 'Can I straighten it?' He said, 'Yeah, that's fine.' So I gave it a kick." It made for a striking moment, but the issue was solved afterwards. Van der Voort therefore understands that seemingly small matters can be highly disruptive for darters. That was clearly the case for Noppert as well, he said. Once the problem got into his head he couldn't let it go. "At one point he was tapping himself on the head, you know. Like, 'Think, think,' you know."
Opponent Ryan Joyce was also discussed. The podcast suggested Joyce might have felt the issue as well but simply played on. Van der Voort sees nothing wrong with that. "But that's what you should do. Why would you help him?" In his view, it's elite sport and a player doesn't need to change his behaviour as long as he isn't doing anything wrong. "You just want to win. If someone else finds it annoying and you're not doing anything wrong, why would you help him?" For Noppert, the defeat was extra painful because there were openings in the draw. Van Gerwen was already out and Littler had gone too. Yet Van der Voort believes such chances arise frequently nowadays. "There were opportunities for him as well, weren't there? Yeah, okay. But I get the feeling that we have that almost every tournament at the moment."
Zonneveld also couldn't seize his shot at a semi-final. The Dutchman lost 3-0 to Humphries, but Van der Voort felt the gap was much smaller than the scoreline suggests. "It was all just not quite there. That's also the difference between a genuine world-class player and someone who is very, very good." Zonneveld missed chances at key moments, while Humphries struck when needed. "With Humphries, that doesn't go wrong. That also shows how good Humphries is, because he actually hasn't been in form at this tournament yet." Van der Voort stressed that the set format can sometimes be misleading. "If Zonneveld wins his own set, he then gets three chances to break Humphries, just to level it. And now it's 3-0 in sets. Then it looks very one-sided, but it was actually pretty close."
