World Matchplay 2024 - The Debutants
Gian van Veen
Born: 23. April 2002Lives in: Poderoijen, Netherlands
Darts: 21g Red Dragon Signatur
Nickname: The Giant
Walk-on-Music: Astronomia (Vicetone & Tony Igy)
Gian van Veen will be the third debutant and the only one on the second day of the tournament to give his debut. He will play in the first match of the evening-session against Rob Cross.
The young Dutchman is a huge talent and won already with 16 his first WDF Youth Event and one year later his second. 2020 he for the first time tried to get a Tour Card but failed as he did again in 2021.
So van Veen played on the Development Tour where he has collected by now nine wins and which he dominated in 2023. 2023 he finally got his Tour Card by the ranking and since then plays on the Pro Tour as well and qualified in 2023 for several European Tour Events. At the European Darts Matchplay 2023 he made head lines whith a 6:0 over Damon Heta as he played an 114.15 average. Beside he reached the semi-finals of the European Championship and was runner-up to Luke Littler in the World Youth Championship.
For his achievements he was awarded at the beginning of 2024 at the PDC Awards as best newcomer and as best young player of the year 2023. But it is not that van Veen only impressed in 2023 - at the Grand Slam he surprisingly lost all three group matches and he was eliminated by Man Lok Leung in the first round of the PDC World Championship 2023/24.
2024 he so far qualified for all eight European Tour events and twice reached the quarterfinals. He played averages between 92.08 and 102.58 - a quite solid to high level. At the UK Open he reached the sixth round and he stood in the semi-finals of the Dutch Darts Masters. But so far his performances are not consistently high-level - probaly not astonishing for a player still so young.
A few years ago van Veen suffered from dartitis but he thinks he managed to get rid of it - especially by still winning games when suffering from the condition. Van Veen studied aviation and probably by now has finished his studies.
The match between Rob Cross and Gina van Veen could be a thrilling and well balanced match - at least when van Veen turns up in good form. Then it probably will be a very open match as well. But Rob Cross already won the World Matchplay once and van Veen is a debutant which could turn out to be a disadvantage.