Nathan Aspinall kicked off his European Darts Grand Prix campaign with a dominant 6-1 win over Jeffrey de Zwaan, setting up a last-16 clash with James Wade. The Englishman, fresh from lifting the title in Munich just two weeks ago, admitted he feels completely at home on the European Tour stage, telling DartsNews, "I just love the European Tour, I feel at home on that stage." He added, "Whenever I walk out on the European Tour — last year I had a lot of success on it — and this year I won two weeks ago when I wasn't in the best of form."
To protect his momentum, Aspinall deliberately skipped last week's ProTour events, explaining, "I chose to pull out of the Pro Tours last week because I didn't want any negativity coming into this tournament." Despite calling it not his best performance, he felt confident throughout the match, highlighted by a spectacular 170 checkout. He said of that moment, "Taking that 170 out shows where my game's at — it felt effortless, you know what I mean?" With another deep run in sight, he added, "I'm looking forward to a big day tomorrow and hopefully I can go back-to-back."
Reflecting on his title-winning night in Munich, Aspinall joked about wild celebrations that almost derailed his travel plans, stating, "I had more than a few beers — I had a lot of beers! But I made my flight. I made it… it was a vile flight, it wasn't good, but I made it." He also staked his claim as the best at the 170 finish, saying, "Maybe Simon Whitlock back in the day — he was big on the 170. But no… it's mine. I don't have many things over the other players, but the 170 is definitely mine."
Another talking point from Munich was Aspinall's surprise walk-on change, debuting Lose Yourself. When asked if fans will see it again, he responded, "We'll see if we get to Sunday night."
