Dennis Nilsson

**Dennis Nilsson** (born 21 March 1976) is a Swedish professional darts player who currently plays in World Darts Federation (WDF) and Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events. In the past, he competed as a strongman, hence his nickname. He represented his country many times during the PDC World Cup of Darts, WDF World Cup and WDF Europe Cup. In total, he won five bronze medals in the team competition. He took part in the PDC World Darts Championship and WDF World Darts Championship.

## Career

Nilsson made his first appearance at the Swedish Championship in 2006, where he reached Last 16 phase. Nilsson, who is a former strongman initially only took part in the Scandinavian tournaments. He made his international debut as a representative of Sweden during the 2009 WDF World Cup. In the singles competition he advanced to the second round, where he lost to Anthony Fleet. In the pairs and team competition, the Swedish representative advanced to the final stage.

A year later, he represented Sweden again, this time during the 2010 WDF Europe Cup. In the singles competition, he advanced to the fourth round, narrowly defeating Øyvind Aasland in the third round match. In the fourth round match he lost to Mike Veitch. Together with the team, he won a bronze medal in team competition. A year later, he took part in the 2011 WDF World Cup. In the singles competition, he achieved a very good result again, advancing to the fourth round, where he was defeated by the tournament winner Scott Waites. He won a bronze medal in the team competition.

In 2011, Nilsson became Swedish Champion for the first time and won a qualifying event for the 2012 PDC World Darts Championship, where he did not make it past the preliminary round, lost to Haruki Muramatsu. Together with Magnus Caris he represented Sweden at the 2012 PDC World Cup of Darts. After an opening win against Japan (Haruki Muramatsu and Morihiro Hashimoto) they narrowly lost in second round match to Belgium (Kim Huybrechts and Kurt van de Rijck). At the 2013 World Masters, Nilsson showed a strong performance when he defeated Alan Norris and Martin Atkins on his way to sixth round, where he had to admit defeat against Danny Noppert. He won a bronze medal in the team competition at the 2013 WDF World Cup.

During the 2014 WDF Europe Cup, he did not win any medals. After 2014, Nilsson has been primarily on the SDC Tour. In 2016, he won the Finnish Masters and Baltic Cup and for the first time qualified for the 2017 BDO World Darts Championship. In the preliminary round he lost to Ryan Joyce by 0–3 in sets. In 2017, Nilsson took part in the 2017 BDO World Trophy for the first time, but lost in the first round to Darius Labanauskas. He was also able to qualify for the 2017 International Darts Open, where he surprisingly made it to the quarter-finals after victories over Steve Beaton, Daryl Gurney and Dave Chisnall. In quarter-finals match he lost to Ron Meulenkamp.

During 2018 BDO World Darts Championship, Nilsson impressed in the preliminary round with a win over Jeffrey Sparidaans. In the first round Nilsson lost to Jim Williams by 2–3 in sets, despite a 2–0 lead after first phase of match. At the end of March, Nilsson was successful for the first time in a PDC Challenge Tour event. Together with Daniel Larsson he lost to Germany (Max Hopp and Martin Schindler) in the first round match at the 2018 PDC World Cup of Darts. He also qualified for the 2018 Danish Darts Open but lost in the first round match against Ricky Evans.

At the beginning of 2019, Nilsson took part in the 2019 UK Open for the first time, where he lost to Madars Razma in the first round match. He also played in 2019 Dutch Darts Masters and advanced to third round. Later that year, he played together with Magnus Caris at the 2019 PDC World Cup of Darts and lost in the second round against Scotland. In August, he won a Swedish Open tournament. Year ago, together with Daniel Larsson he played for Sweden in the 2020 PDC World Cup of Darts. Surprisingly, however, they lost to the Greek team John Michael and Veniamin Symeonidis.

In 2022, he took part in PDC European Tour tournaments three times, reaching the second round at the latest. At the beginning of June there was a success on the Nordic & Baltic Tour in Finland. In the fall of 2022, he was selected to participate in the 2022 WDF Europe Cup. In the team competition, together with his colleagues, he won his third bronze medal in this tournament.

At the end of January 2023, Nilsson took part in the 2023 Nordic Darts Masters for the first time and lost in first round match against Peter Wright. During the 2023 WDF World Cup, he performed very poorly in the singles and pairs competition. Fortunately, he won the bronze medal in the team competition. He received an invitation to participate in the 2023 PDC World Cup of Darts together with Oskar Lukasiak. They won their group against Italy (Michele Turetta and Massimo Dante) and Switzerland (Stefan Bellmont and Marcel Walpen) and surprisingly defeated Canada (Matt Campbell and Jeff Smith) in the second round. In the quarter-final doubles match they lost to eventual winners Wales (Gerwyn Price and Jonny Clayton) by 5–8 in legs.

In December, he will take part in the 2023 WDF World Darts Championship.

## World Championship results

### PDC

* 2012: Preliminary round (lost to Haruki Muramatsu 2–4) (legs)

### WDF

* 2017: Preliminary round (lost to Ryan Joyce 0–3)
* 2018: First round (lost to Jim Williams 2–3)
* 2023: Semi-finals (lost to Andy Baetens 2–5)