Vincent van der Voort

Vincent van der Voort (born 18 December 1975) is a Dutch professional darts player on the PDC circuit.

His best results in British Darts Organisation events were winning the Danish Open in 2002 and 2006 and reaching the quarter-finals of the BDO World Championship at Frimley Green in 2005, defeating 2004 champion Andy Fordham in the process.

He reached the final of the 2007 UK Open, which helped him become a well known face in the world of darts.

Van der Voort is well known for his spasmodic style and machine-gun speed of play which has gained him a reputation in both the BDO and the PDC for being one of the more erratic throwers in the darting world.

This ties in with his old entrance music, "Fast Fuse" by English band Kasabian.

This has resulted in him tending to be either right on or way off his intended target.

He suffered a first round exit in the 2007 World Championship to unranked qualifier Davy Richardson.

It was announced days later that Van der Voort, along with fellow Dutchmen Jelle Klaasen and Michael van Gerwen would be switching to the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC).

Van der Voort produced a superb run to reach the final of the 2007 UK Open before losing in the final to countryman Raymond van Barneveld.

The runner-up prize of £15,000 helped him climb up the world rankings having started placed 211 in the PDC and has now made it into the top 20.

He qualified for the 2007 Las Vegas Desert Classic but lost in the first round to Peter Manley.

Van der Voort reached the second round of the 2008 PDC World Championship.

He played his fellow Dutchman Klaasen in the first round, defeating him 3–2 in sets.

Adrian Lewis was his opponent in the second round and Van der Voort lost 2–4.

The US Open saw a disappointing 2–3 first round defeat at the hands of John Kuczynski of the US.

The UK Open saw a return to form with Van der Voort making it all the way to the semi-final.

He started in the fourth round with a fine 9–4 win over Colin Lloyd.

This was followed up in the fifth round with another victory over Klaasen.

The quarter final matched him with Chris Thompson and a 10–5 win was enough to see Van der Voort through to the semi-final.

In the semi-final, Van der Voort eventually succumbed to a 10–4 defeat by James Wade who went on to win the tournament.

His World Matchplay campaign was ended at the first hurdle.

Number 13 seed Alan Tabern won the encounter with a narrow 10–8 victory.

The World Grand Prix saw Van der Voort playing former World number 1 Lloyd in the first round and Van der Voort eliminated by a score of 0–2.

Van der Voort won group 6 of the inaugural Championship League with a 7–2 thrashing over Mark Walsh to qualify for the Winners group.

He would go on to finish bottom of the group, with only one win from his seven matches.

Van der Voort reached the third round of the 2009 PDC World Championship.

He defeated Hungary's Nándor Bezzeg 3–0 in sets and then defeated number 14 seed Colin Osborne in the second round 4–1 assisted by some superb finishes.

He eventually went out to number 3 seed Wade losing 4–0 in the last 16.

At the 2009 Grand Slam of Darts, Van der Voort suffered a defeat to Anastasia Dobromyslova in the group stages, becoming only the second man in history to lose a televised match to a woman.

Two days later, however, he sensationally thrashed defending champion Phil Taylor 5–1, becoming only the third man in 2009 to beat Taylor in a televised match (the others being Mervyn King and James Wade).

On 30 December 2010, Van der Voort's biggest win occurred in the round of 16 of the 2011 PDC World Darts Championship where he eliminated the 2010 runner-up and number four seed Simon Whitlock 4–2.

However, in the quarter-finals on 1 January 2011, Van der Voort then lost 2–5 against Adrian Lewis.

He reached the final in the first of the 2011 players championships in Germany, where he lost 6–1 to Mervyn King.

He went on to win his first title of 2011, winning a UK Open Qualifier against Raymond van Barneveld in a high scoring match.

As of the 2012 PDC World Darts Championship, his nickname is the "Dutch Destroyer", although he used to go by "Grease Lightning".

He is best known for his quick throwing style, which is how he got his temporary nickname "The Fastest Player in the World".

Van der Voort beat Mark Hylton 3–2 in the first round of the 2012 World Championship in a thrilling match.

His second round tie also went to a deciding set against Andy Hamilton, but this time the Dutchman was on the wrong end and exited the tournament by 3 sets to 4.

He then represented the Netherlands in the 2012 PDC World Cup of Darts to try to defend the title won by Raymond van Barneveld and Co Stompé in 2010.

His results moved him to the brink of the top sixteen, ranking in 17th and having passed Roland Scholten on the PDC Order of Merit, Van der Voort was the second-highest ranked Dutchman in the rankings, behind Van Barneveld.