Jelle Klaasen (born 17 October 1984) is the youngest
dartsDarts is a form of sport where darts are thrown at a circular target hung on a wall. Though various different boards and games have been used in the past, the term 'darts' usually now refers to a standardized game involving a specific board design and set of rules...
player ever to win the World Darts Championship. His nickname is
The Matador. He lives in
BredaBreda is a municipality and a city in the southern part of the Netherlands. The name Breda derived from brede Aa and refers to the confluence of the rivers Mark and Aa. As a fortified city, the city was a strategic military and political significance...
,
North BrabantNorth Brabant is a province of the Netherlands, located in the south of the country, bordered by Belgium in the south, the Meuse River in the north, Limburg in the east and Zeeland in the west.- History :...
,
NetherlandsThe Netherlands is a country in Northwestern Europe, constituting the major portion of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It is a parliamentary democratic constitutional monarchy. The Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east...
. He is an ethnic Indo.
On 15 January 2006, he became the youngest ever World Darts Champion, aged 21 years 90 days, when he defeated fellow Dutchman
Raymond van BarneveldRaymond van Barneveld , nickname Barney and The Man, is a professional darts player. He is a five time World Darts Champion, two time UK Open Champion and the Las Vegas Desert Classic Champion...
in the final of the
2006 BDO World Darts Championship- The Results :-External links:* *...
by 7 sets to 5. He also beat
Shaun GreatbatchShaun Greatbatch is an English darts player. He lives in Suffolk and works in the construction industry. His nickname is 9 Dart, having been the first player to hit a perfect nine dart finish on live television, in the final of the 2002 Dutch Open against Steve Coote.-Darts career:Shaun's family...
and world number one Mervyn King on his way to the final.
Jelle Klaasen (born 17 October 1984) is the youngest
dartsDarts is a form of sport where darts are thrown at a circular target hung on a wall. Though various different boards and games have been used in the past, the term 'darts' usually now refers to a standardized game involving a specific board design and set of rules...
player ever to win the World Darts Championship. His nickname is
The Matador. He lives in
BredaBreda is a municipality and a city in the southern part of the Netherlands. The name Breda derived from brede Aa and refers to the confluence of the rivers Mark and Aa. As a fortified city, the city was a strategic military and political significance...
,
North BrabantNorth Brabant is a province of the Netherlands, located in the south of the country, bordered by Belgium in the south, the Meuse River in the north, Limburg in the east and Zeeland in the west.- History :...
,
NetherlandsThe Netherlands is a country in Northwestern Europe, constituting the major portion of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It is a parliamentary democratic constitutional monarchy. The Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east...
. He is an ethnic Indo.
World Championship performances
On 15 January 2006, he became the youngest ever World Darts Champion, aged 21 years 90 days, when he defeated fellow Dutchman
Raymond van BarneveldRaymond van Barneveld , nickname Barney and The Man, is a professional darts player. He is a five time World Darts Champion, two time UK Open Champion and the Las Vegas Desert Classic Champion...
in the final of the
2006 BDO World Darts Championship- The Results :-External links:* *...
by 7 sets to 5. He also beat
Shaun GreatbatchShaun Greatbatch is an English darts player. He lives in Suffolk and works in the construction industry. His nickname is 9 Dart, having been the first player to hit a perfect nine dart finish on live television, in the final of the 2002 Dutch Open against Steve Coote.-Darts career:Shaun's family...
and world number one Mervyn King on his way to the final. Before the championship, by many he was said to be a 100-1 outsider to win the title as he did not even have a BDO Tour ranking.
Klaasen returned to the Lakeside to defend his World title at the
2007 BDO World Darts ChampionshipThe 2007 Lakeside World Darts Championship was the 30th Championship and was held between January 6–14, 2007 at the Lakeside Country Club, Frimley Green, Surrey....
. Klaasen was unseeded for the event after a poor run of form and was facing the seeded
Co StompéJacobus "Co" Stompé , is a Dutch professional darts player.-BDO career:For years Stompé was considered the second best Dutch darts player behind Raymond van Barneveld. After reaching the semi-finals of the 2000 BDO World Darts Championship, he dropped back behind a younger emerging Dutch group of...
, with eventual winner
Martin AdamsMartin Adams is an English international darts player.He won the 2007 World Championship - his 14th attempt at the title. He is now also the reigning Winmau World Masters Champion. He is currently number four in the BDO world rankings, and formerly number one. He plays county darts for...
waiting in round two should he win.
Klaasen became the sixth defending champion to fall at the first hurdle in his title defence with his first round loss to fellow countryman Stompé by three sets to nil.. Although Klaasen was lower in the
rankingsDarts world rankings are a system which should determine a list of the best dart players in the world based on their performances in tournaments...
at the time, it was considered an upset as Stompé had not won at the Lakeside in the previous four years.
The day after the final it was announced that Klaasen would be defecting to the rival
Professional Darts CorporationThe Professional Darts Corporation is a professional darts organisation, established in the United Kingdom during 1992, when a group of leading professional players split from the officially-recognised British Darts Organisation...
, alongside two fellow countrymen,
Michael van GerwenMichael van Gerwen is a Dutch professional darts player, nicknamed Mighty Mike. In January 2007, van Gerwen became the youngest player ever to compete at the BDO version of the World Professional Darts Championship at the age of 17 years, 257 days...
and
Vincent van der VoortVincent van der Voort is a professional darts player.His best results are winning the Danish Open in 2002 and 2006 and reaching the quarter finals of the BDO World Darts Championship at Frimley Green in 2005...
. The BDO planned to take legal action as Jelle has a year left on his current contract.
BDO Grand Slam events
His first attempt at the
Winmau World MastersThe Winmau World Masters is one of the longest running and most prestigious professional darts tournaments, which began in 1974 - even before the current World Professional Championship...
in 2005 ended with a 2-3 defeat to Irishman Steve McDonald. In 2006 he was seeded 13 but suffered a straight sets defeat in his first match against fellow Dutchman
Mario RobbeMario Robbe is a Dutch darts player currently playing in British Darts Organisation events.Robbe made his BDO World Darts Championship debut in 2007, where he lost in the first round to Ted Hankey. He returned to Lakeside in 2008, but lost again in the first round to fellow Dutchman Remco van...
.
As World Champion, he was invited to the 2006
World Darts TrophyThe World Darts Trophy was a darts tournament held each September at De Vechtsebanen in Utrecht, Netherlands between 2002 and 2007. The tournament has a playing format comparable with the two World Championships, the BDO World Darts Championship and the PDC World Darts Championship...
in his home country, but lost 0-3 to
Tony EcclesTony Eccles is a Winmau sponsored darts player currently residing in Hartlepool. He uses the nickname The Viper.-BDO career:...
in the first round. In 2007 he won in the first round 3-1 against reigning PDC world champion van Barneveld, shortly after that he lost in the second round to
Andy HamiltonAndy Hamilton is a full time professional English darts player widely known for his "aggressive" style of play. He is nicknamed The Hammer and is currently ranked 16th on the PDC Order of Merit....
.
He also played in the 2006
International Darts LeagueThe Topic International Darts League was a darts tournament held at the Triavium in Nijmegen, Netherlands. Raymond van Barneveld dominated the tournament, held in his home country, winning it on three of the five occasions it was held...
and beat 13-times World Champion
Phil TaylorPhilip Douglas "Phil" Taylor is an English darts player. Nicknamed The Power, he has won 52 major tournaments, which includes 14 world championships, more than any other player in the history of the sport. He has been ranked World Number One since June 2008 and has had eight different spells at...
7-6 in his last group match, but it was not enough to qualify for the knockout stages. He had also beaten
Andy FordhamAndy "The Viking" Fordham is an English darts player. He won the 2004 BDO World Darts Championship, beating Mervyn King in the final...
and Dick van Dijk but had lost to Adams, Greatbatch and
Colin LloydColin Lloyd , nicknamed Jaws, is a darts player on the Professional Darts Corporation circuit. He is a former world number one ranked player and he has won two major television titles in the PDC - the 2004 World Grand Prix and 2005 World Matchplay...
in his other group matches.
PDC career
Klaasen did not make an immediate impact on the PDC circuit, having to start virtually from scratch at 262 in the
world rankingsDarts world rankings are a system which should determine a list of the best dart players in the world based on their performances in tournaments...
. He competed at most of the Pro Tour events (Players Championships and UK Open Regional Finals) to improve his ranking. He reached the quarter-finals of two non-televised Pro Tour events before winning a Players Championship - the John McEvoy Gold Dart Classic in November which saw him climb to 49 in the Order of Merit. He only made it into one televised PDC event in the UK during 2007 (the UK Open where he reached the last 32) but his form towards the end of the year ensured automatic qualification for the 2008 World Championship - his debut in the PDC version. He lost in the first round to fellow Dutchman van der Voort in a sudden death leg, having missed ten darts to win the match.
He defeated Lloyd,
Jan van der RasselJan van der Rassel is a Dutch darts player who competes in Professional Darts Corporation events. He uses the nickname Rassel Dazzle for his matches. His former nickname was Tweety Pie....
and Hamilton to reach the quarter finals of the
2009 PDC World Darts ChampionshipThe 2009 Ladbrokes.com World Darts Championship was the 16th World Championship organised by the Professional Darts Corporation since it separated from the British Darts Organisation....
, only dropping one set in the process. In the Quarter Finals, he was beaten by fellow Dutchman van Barneveld by 5 sets to 1. Klaasen won the first set impressively but the match is memorable for the moment of history as van Barneveld threw a perfect nine-dart finish in the 6th set, the first ever live televised nine-dart finish in the World Championship.
In January 2009, Klaasen was chosen as one of the two wildcards for the
2009 Premier League DartsThe 2009 Whyte & Mackay Premier League was a darts tournament organised by the Professional Darts Corporation.The tournament kicked off at the Liverpool Echo Arena which hosted the biggest ever crowd for a PDC event of almost 8,000 in 2008....
tournament, where he will compete against Taylor,
James WadeJames Wade is an English professional darts player, currently playing in the Professional Darts Corporation . He became the youngest player ever to win a major PDC title at the World Matchplay in July 2007...
, van Barneveld,
John PartJohn Part is a Canadian darts player, who is nicknamed Darth Maple.Part is a three time World Champion. His first world title came at the 1994 BDO World Championship and he later won the other version of the world title, the PDC World Championship in 2003 and again in 2008. He was the first...
,
Terry JenkinsTerry Jenkins is a professional English darts player who is nicknamed The Bull, having previously used the nickname "Tucker" for his matches...
, King and the other wildcard
Wayne MardleWayne Mardle is a darts player for the Professional Darts Corporation, and former player in the BDO. He now lives in Romford...
.
Klaasen found life hard in the Premier League, losing 5 and drawing 2 of his opening 7 matches. On March 26, Klaasen defeated Terry Jenkins 8-6 to finally record his first victory in the competition.
Other tournaments
Klaasen has won some Open events in his native country including the Alkmaar Open, but has yet to clinch a major BDO/WDF Open event. In March 2006 he was runner-up in the
FinnishFinland , officially the Republic of Finland
, is a Nordic country and democracy situated in the Fennoscandian region of northern Europe. It borders Sweden on the west, Russia on the east, and Norway on the north, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland...
Open, losing in the final to
Martin AtkinsMartin Atkins is an English darts player. His nickname is "The Assassin". His most notable achievement is beating former BDO World Champion Jelle Klaasen to win the Finnish Open on 11 March 2006...
by 6 sets to 2. He also reached the quarter-finals of the Swiss Open and Denmark Open during 2006.
He also won the Killarney Darts Festival in 2007, where he beat van der Voort 3-2.
Outside darts
Before the 2006 World Championships, Klaasen worked for a manpower agency in the Netherlands but he has now taken up darts full-time. He is sponsored by Keukenconcurrent - a company who produce fitted kitchens in his home country.
External links