Dimitri Van den Bergh

Dimitri Van den Bergh
Van den Bergh in 2021
Personal information
Full name	Dimitri Barbara Peter Van den Bergh [1]
Nickname	"The Dreammaker"
Born	(1994-07-08) 8 July 1994 (age 29) Antwerp, Belgium
Home town	Sint-Truiden, Belgium
Darts information
Darts	23g Target Signature Gen 2
Laterality	Right-handed
Walk-on music	"Happy" by Pharrell Williams
Organisation (see split in darts)
BDO	2012–2013
PDC	2013– (Tour Card: 2015-)
Current world ranking	9 (14 April 2024) [2]
WDF major events – best performances
World Masters	Last 256: 2013
PDC premier events – best performances
World Ch'ship	Semi Final: 2023
World Matchplay	Winner (1): 2020
World Grand Prix	Quarter Final: 2022
UK Open	Winner (1): 2024
Grand Slam	Semi Final: 2020
European Ch'ship	Last 16: 2022
Premier League	5th: 2021
PC Finals	Last 16: 2022, 2023
Masters	Semi Final: 2024
World Series Finals	Runner Up: 2021
Other tournament wins
Hemeco Open Rosmalen 2016 Players Championships Players Championship (BAR) 2021 Players Championship (NIE) 2021 World Series of Darts Dutch Darts Masters 2022 Nordic Darts Masters 2022 Youth events PDC World Youth Championship 2017, 2018 PDC Development Tour 2014 (x3), 2015 (x2) 2016, 2017, 2018 (x2) PDC Challenge Tour 2013 British Teenage Open 2013
Other achievements
2016 Breaks into the top 64 on the PDC Order of Merit for the first time 2018 Hits first televised nine-dart leg at 2018 Grand Slam of Darts against Stephen Bunting [3] 2020 Wins first ranked PDC premier title. Moves into top 16 on the PDC Order of Merit for the first time
Medal record Men's Darts Representing   Belgium EDF European Ch'ship 2017 Podčetrtek Men's singles 2017 Podčetrtek Men's cricket

Dimitri Van den Bergh (born 8 July 1994) is a Belgian professional darts player who competes in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events, where he is currently ranked No. 9 in the world. Nicknamed "The Dreammaker", he is a two-time World Youth Champion, the 2020 World Matchplay champion, after beating Gary Anderson 18–10 in the final, in his first time competing in the Matchplay, and also the reigning UK Open Champion, after beating Luke Humphries 11–10 in the final.

Career

BDO

In 2013, Van den Bergh won the British Teenage Open by beating Billy Longshaw 3–0 in the final. ^[4] Two months later he claimed the 16th PDC Challenge Tour event of the year by whitewashing Exmouths Charlie Tate 4–0. ^[5]

PDC

2014

In 2014, he entered Q School in an attempt to earn a PDC tour card, but he couldn't advance beyond the last 64 in any of the four days. However, he was granted PDPA Associate Member status for participating which gave him entry into UK Open and European tour qualifiers. ^[6] Van den Bergh qualified for the first European Tour event, the German Darts Championship and lost 6–2 in the first round against Ronnie Baxter despite averaging 102.94. ^[7] Van den Bergh won three youth tour titles during the year and also reached the last 16 of the Under-21 World Championship, where he lost 6–3 to Robinson. ^[8] He finished top of the Youth Tour Order of Merit which earned him a two-year card for the main PDC tour by ^[9]

2015

Van den Bergh claimed two Development Tour titles in 2015. ^[10] He reached the last 16 of a PDC event for the first time at the third Players Championship event, but lost 6–5 to Mensur Suljović. ^[11] Van den Bergh was also knocked out in the second round of three European Tour events. ^[10] He qualified for the inaugural World Series of Darts Finals but was beaten 6–3 by Max Hopp in the first round in what was Van den Bergh's televised debut. ^{[12] [13]}

2016

He qualified for the 2016 World Championship through the European Pro Tour Order of Merit and danced on to the stage before his first round encounter with Ian White. ^[14] Van den Bergh missed four darts for the first set, but went on to win 3–1 taking out four ton-plus finishes during the match. ^[15] He lost 4–2 to Benito van de Pas in the following round. ^[16] Van den Bergh won the 14th Development Tour event by overcoming Steve Lennon 4–2. ^[17] At the 15th Players Championship tournament Van den Bergh reached the semi-finals of a main tour event for the first time with wins over Devon Petersen, Jan Dekker, Ronny Huybrechts, Chris Dobey and Cristo Reyes, but he lost 6–2 to Michael van Gerwen. ^[18] In the semi-finals of the World Youth Championship, Van den Bergh was beaten 6–3 by Corey Cadby. ^[19] He won a place at the Grand Slam by coming through the qualifying event and edged his first group match 5–4 over Gerwyn Price. ^[20] Van den Bergh was then beaten 5–4 by Robert Thornton, but after defeating Scott Waites 5–4 in the final group game it meant he was tied with Thornton on points and leg difference. This meant a nine-dart shoot-out was required to decide who would advance to the knock-out stage and Thornton won by 345 points to 340. ^[21]

2017

Van den Bergh's first round match at the 2017 World Championship went to a deciding set and was on throw, but he missed two darts at double eight to send it to a tie-break, allowing Cristo Reyes to step in and win 3–2. ^[22] At the end of the year, Van den Bergh became World Youth Champion by defeating Josh Payne 6–3 in the final. He would defend his title the following year by defeating Germany's Martin Schindler in the final.

2018

At the 2018 PDC World Darts Championship, Van den Bergh reached the quarter-finals for the first time, where he lost 5–4 to eventual champion Rob Cross in a tight match. Van den Bergh's debut in the World Series of Darts came with a stellar performance in the 2018 German Darts Masters where he lost in the final to Mensur Suljović 2–8 after defeating Michael van Gerwen 8–3 in the quarter-final and Gary Anderson 8–7 in the semi-final. ^[23]

2019

At the 2019 PDC World Darts Championship, Van den Bergh lost 4–1 to Luke Humphries in the third round. Following Gary Anderson's withdrawal from the 2019 Premier League, Van den Bergh was selected as one of nine 'contenders' to replace him. He would play a one-off match against James Wade on night eight in Rotterdam, recording a 6–6 draw. Van den Bergh reached two Players Championship Finals, but lost in both to Glen Durrant and Krzysztof Ratajski respectively. Later in the year, he would qualify for the World Grand Prix for the first time, but he let a 1–0 lead slip and eventually lost 2–1 to Mervyn King. In the 2020 PDC World Darts Championship, Van den Bergh scored high averages in defeating Josh Payne, Luke Woodhouse and Adrian Lewis, before losing to Nathan Aspinall in the quarter-finals.

2020

At the 2020 PDC World Darts Championship, Van den Bergh reached the quarter-finals for the second time, there he lost to Nathan Aspinall 5–3. In March he reached the quarter-finals of the UK Open before succumbing to Gerwyn Price. Then, after spending the whole first COVID-19 pandemic lockdown in the UK, staying at Peter Wright's house, Van den Bergh pulled off the biggest achievement of his career by winning the 2020 World Matchplay on his debut, after defeating Nathan Aspinall, Joe Cullen, Adrian Lewis, Glen Durrant and Gary Anderson to win the £115,000 top prize, and move him into the Top 10 in the world for the first time.

2021

At the 2021 PDC World Darts Championship, Van den Bergh lost 4–2 in the fourth round to Dave Chisnall. In defence of his World Matchplay title, he reached the final, before losing 18–9 to Peter Wright

Van den Bergh qualified for the 2021 Nordic Darts Masters where he defeated Sweden's Johan Engström 6-4 in the first round, and defeated Gary Anderson 10-8 in the quarter finals before he lost to Fallon Sherrock 11-10 in the semi-finals.

2022

At the 2022 PDC World Darts Championship, Van den Bergh suffered a shock second round defeat to Florian Hempel. ^[24] At the Masters he reached the second round, defeating Ian White 6-1 in round 1 with a 105.31 average, but then losing 10-9 to Jonny Clayton in round 2. ^{[25] [26]} In June 2022, Van den Bergh won the 2022 Nordic Darts Masters, defeating Benjamin Drue Reus, Gerwyn Price and Michael Smith en route to a final against Gary Anderson which the Belgian won 11–4. ^[27]

2023

At the 2023 PDC World Championship, Van den Bergh reached the quarterfinals for the third time and was finally able to progress further, seeing off Jonny Clayton 5–3, and as a result became the first Belgian player to reach the semi-finals of a PDC World Championship. ^[28] before succumbing to a 6–0 defeat to Michael van Gerwen. ^[29] In the same year, he and Kim Huybrechts represented Belgium on the World Cup of Darts. However, the two darters seemed to ignore each other during their first game. According to several media, the two players were having an unknown conflict, which they did not solve before the match started. Van den Bergh and Huybrechts did not really explain their behaviour after the game. ^[30]

2024

At the 2024 PDC World Darts Championship Van den Bergh was defeated in the second round by Florian Hempel 2–3, despite winning the first two sets, Van den Bergh missed 3 match darts. The match was a repeat of the 2022 second-round tie, which Hempel also won. ^[31]

Van den Bergh won his second major title at the 2024 UK Open, beating World Champion Luke Humphries in a deciding leg in the final. ^[32]

World Championship performances

PDC

• 2016: Second round (lost to Benito van de Pas 2–4)
• 2017: First round (lost to Cristo Reyes 2–3)
• 2018: Quarter-finals (lost to Rob Cross 4–5)
• 2019: Third round (lost to Luke Humphries 1–4)
• 2020: Quarter-finals (lost to Nathan Aspinall 3–5)
• 2021: Fourth round (lost to Dave Chisnall 2–4)
• 2022: Second round (lost to Florian Hempel 1–3)
• 2023: Semi-finals (lost to Michael van Gerwen 0–6)
• 2024: Second round (lost to Florian Hempel 2–3)

Career finals

PDC major finals: 4 (2 title, 2 runner-up)

Legend

World Matchplay (1–1)

UK Open (1–0)

World Series of Darts Finals (0–1)

Outcome	No.	Year	Championship	Opponent in the final	Score [lower-alpha 1]
Winner	1.	2020	World Matchplay	Gary Anderson	18–10 (l)
Runner-up	1.	2021	World Matchplay	Peter Wright	9–18 (l)
Runner-up	2.	2021	World Series of Darts Finals	Jonny Clayton	6–11 (l)
Winner	2.	2024	UK Open	Luke Humphries	11–10 (l)

PDC world series finals: 4 (2 titles, 2 runner-up)

Legend

World Series of Darts (2–2)

Outcome	No.	Year	Championship	Opponent in the final	Score [lower-alpha 1]
Runner-up	1.	2018	German Darts Masters	Mensur Suljović	2–8 (l)
Winner	1.	2022	Nordic Darts Masters	Gary Anderson	11–5 (l)
Winner	2.	2022	Dutch Darts Masters	Dirk van Duijvenbode	8–2 (l)
Runner-up	2.	2023	Poland Darts Masters	Michael van Gerwen	3–8 (l)

Performance timeline

Tournament	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024
Ranked televised events
PDC World Championship	DNQ		2R	1R	QF	3R	QF	4R	2R	SF	2R
UK Open	Did not qualify				1R	6R	QF	4R	5R	SF	W
World Matchplay	Did not qualify						W	F	SF	2R
World Grand Prix	Did not qualify					1R	2R	1R	QF	1R
European Championship	DNQ			1R	DNQ	1R	DNQ		2R	1R
Grand Slam of Darts	DNQ		RR	DNQ	QF	RR	SF	WD	DNQ
Players Championship Finals	DNQ		2R	DNQ	1R	1R	1R	2R	3R	3R
Non-ranked televised events
Premier League Darts	Did not play					C	DNP	5th	DNP	6th	DNP
The Masters	Did not qualify							1R	2R	1R	SF
PDC World Cup of Darts	Did not play				SF	QF	SF	2R	QF	SF
World Series of Darts Finals	DNQ	1R	DNQ	QF	1R	DNQ	1R	F	2R	QF
PDC World Youth Championship	3R	1R	SF	W	W	Did not play
Career statistics
Year-end ranking	NR	59	51	39	33	29	9	9	11	14

PDC European Tour

Season	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13
2014	GDC 1R	DDM 2R	GDM DNQ	ADO DNQ	GDT 2R	EDO DNQ	EDG DNQ	EDT 2R
2015	GDC DNQ	GDT 2R	GDM DNQ	DDM 1R	IDO DNQ	EDO 2R	EDT DNQ	EDM 2R	EDG DNQ
2016	DDM 1R	GDM 1R	GDT DNQ	EDM DNQ	ADO 2R	EDO 2R	IDO DNQ	EDT 2R	EDG DNQ	GDC DNQ
2017	GDC 2R	GDM DNQ	GDO 3R	EDG 2R	GDT 3R	EDM DNQ	ADO 1R	EDO 3R	DDM DNQ	GDG DNQ	IDO 1R	EDT 1R
2018	EDO 1R	GDG DNQ	GDO 2R	ADO 3R	EDG 1R	DDM DNQ	GDT DNQ	DDO DNQ	EDM DNQ	GDC DNQ	DDC DNQ	IDO DNQ	EDT DNQ
2019	EDO 3R	GDC 2R	GDG DNQ	GDO 2R	ADO DNQ	EDG 2R	DDM DNQ	DDO DNQ	CDO DNQ	ADC 2R	EDM DNQ	IDO 2R	GDT 2R
2020	BDC 2R	GDC DNQ	EDG DNQ	IDO DNQ
2021	HDT DNQ	GDT DNQ
2022	IDO QF	GDC SF	GDG 2R	ADO 2R	EDO F	CDO 3R	EDG 2R	DDC 2R	EDM 3R	HDT 2R	GDO F	BDO 2R	GDT 2R
2023	BSD 3R	EDO 3R	IDO 2R	GDG 2R	ADO DNQ	DDC 2R	BDO 2R	CDO 3R	EDG 2R	EDM 3R	GDO DNQ	HDT DNQ	GDC DNQ
2024	BDO 1R	GDG 2R	IDO 2R	EDG WD	ADO	BSD	DDC	EDO	GDC	FDT	HDT	SDT	CDO

Performance Table Legend
W	Won the tournament	F	Finalist	SF	Semifinalist	QF	Quarterfinalist	#R RR L#	Lost in # round Round-robin Last # stage	DQ	Disqualified
DNQ	Did not qualify	DNP	Did not participate	WD	Withdrew	NH	Tournament not held			NYF	Not yet founded

Nine-dart finishes

See also: Nine-dart finish

Dimitri Van den Bergh televised nine-dart finishes

Date	Opponent	Tournament	Method	Prize
14 November 2018	Stephen Bunting	Grand Slam of Darts	3 x T20; 3 x T20; T20, T19, D12	£25,000

Notes

1. (l) = score in legs, (s) = score in sets.

References

1. @DanDartsDawson (April 20, 2021). "Evidence. The man top of the @unibet..." (Tweet) – via Twitter.
2. "PDC Order of Merit". PDPA. 14 April 2024. Retrieved 14 April 2024.
3. "Dimitri Van den Bergh hits a nine-darter at Grand Slam of Darts". SKY Sports. 15 November 2018. Retrieved 19 November 2018.
4. "2013 British Teenage Open Results". Darts Database. Archived from the original on 29 July 2014. Retrieved 27 June 2014.
5. "2013 PDC Challenge Tour England Results". Darts Database. Archived from the original on 29 July 2014. Retrieved 27 June 2014.
6. "2014 PDC Qualifying School Day Four". PDC. Archived from the original on 19 January 2014. Retrieved 27 June 2014.
7. "German Darts Championship Round One". PDC. Archived from the original on 1 November 2014. Retrieved 27 June 2014.
8. "2014 PDC Under 21 World Championship Results". Darts Database. Archived from the original on 14 July 2014. Retrieved 27 June 2014.
9. "Brown & Reynolds Earn Youth Wins". PDC. Archived from the original on 1 November 2014. Retrieved 1 November 2014.
10. "Dimitri van den Bergh 2015". Darts Database. Archived from the original on 29 November 2015. Retrieved 28 November 2015.
11. "2015 PDPA Players Championship Barnsley Results". Darts Database. Archived from the original on 2 July 2017. Retrieved 29 November 2015.
12. "2015 World Series Of Darts Finals Qualifier Results". Darts Database. Archived from the original on 3 July 2017. Retrieved 29 November 2015.
13. "2015 World Series Of Darts Finals Results". Darts Database. Archived from the original on 11 December 2018. Retrieved 29 November 2015.
14. "2016 PDC World Championship Qualifiers". Darts Database. Archived from the original on 28 December 2017. Retrieved 3 December 2015.
15. "William Hill World Championship Day Three". PDC. Archived from the original on 21 December 2015. Retrieved 19 December 2015.
16. "William Hill World Championship Day Nine". PDC. Archived from the original on 28 December 2015. Retrieved 29 December 2015.
17. "Dean & Dimitri's Development Tour Wins". PDC. Archived from the original on 20 November 2016. Retrieved 19 November 2016.
18. "Nine-Dart van Gerwen's Barnsley Double". PDC. Archived from the original on 20 November 2016. Retrieved 19 November 2016.
19. "2016 PDC Youth World Championship Results". Darts Database. Archived from the original on 7 August 2018. Retrieved 19 November 2016.
20. "SINGHA Beer Grand Slam Day One". PDC. Archived from the original on 20 November 2016. Retrieved 19 November 2016.
21. "SINGHA Beer Grand Slam Day Four". PDC. Archived from the original on 25 November 2016. Retrieved 19 November 2016.
22. "William Hill World Championship Day Three". PDC . Retrieved 17 December 2016.
23. "Super Suljovic's German Darts Masters Glory".
24. "Cazoo World Darts Championship".
25. "Van den Bergh & Whitlock shine on Ladbrokes Masters Day One".
26. "Whitlock KO's Wright to reach Ladbrokes Masters quarter-finals".
27. "Van den Bergh dominates in Denmark to claim Nordic Darts Masters glory". www.pdc.tv. 11 June 2022. Retrieved 12 June 2022.
28. "Van den Bergh hoping to make his dream 'a reality' at Ally Pally". www.pdc.tv. 2 January 2023. Retrieved 3 January 2023.
29. "Van Gerwen and Smith to collide in blockbuster World Championship final". www.pdc.tv. 2 January 2023. Retrieved 3 January 2023.
30. sportredactie, Door onze (16 June 2023). "Belgische teamgenoten negeren elkaar compleet bij zege op World Cup of Darts". NU (in Dutch). Retrieved 17 June 2023.
31. Gill, Samuel (22 December 2023). "Fabulous Florian Hempel produced astonishing great escape to defeat Dimitri Van den Bergh again at World Darts Championship". Darts News. Retrieved 16 March 2024.
32. Gorton, Josh (3 March 2024). "Van den Bergh topples Humphries to claim UK Open glory". PDC. Retrieved 3 March 2024.

External links

• Dimitri Van den Bergh player profile at Darts Orakel