‘It’s very difficult for me to catch my breath. I’m so happy. I’ve really fought my way through here,’ says an exhilarated Martin Schindler in his third European Tour Final interview.
‘The Wall’ is also the winner at the microphone for the third time. With an 8 – 4 triumph over Ross Smith, he secured the ELTEN Safety Shoes Austrian Darts Open and the legendary green Janker. Schindler thus won one European Tour title each in Germany, Austria and Switzerland and is the new number 18 in the world – the highest ranking a German darts player has ever achieved.
‘Thank you very much Austria! It was an absolute pleasure to play for you,’ he added.
The 28-year-old fought his way into the final with victories over Matthew Dennant (6 – 3) and Kevin Doets (6 – 5). Against Chris Dobey, ‘The Wall’ achieved an outstanding average of 107.78 points and won 6 – 4. Germany’s number one then made it through to the final with a dramatic semi-final victory over Josh Rock (7 – 6). Schindler then clearly dominated Ross Smith.
‘I didn’t play well. Martin was really good and totally deserved it. To be honest, I was probably a bit lucky to reach the final at all. I’m happy to take that with me. The fans even celebrated me at the end, even though I wasn’t the winner,’ said Smith after his third European Tour final.
The 13,000 fans in Premstätten/Graz gave their all to whip their favourites – especially the Austrian players – into the final over the weekend.
However, three of the four Host Nation Qualifiers – Christian Gödl (3 – 6 against Thibault Tricole), Zoran Lerchbacher (0 – 6 against Jermaine Wattimena) and Rowby-John Rodriguez (2 – 6 against Matthew Dennant) – had to bid farewell to the Styrian hall after the first round.
Mensur Suljovic in particular brought the crowd to the boil. ‘The Gentle’ managed an opening win against the reigning European champion Ritchie Edhouse (6 – 4) before clearly losing to Daryl Gurney 1 – 6 on the second day of the tournament. Nevertheless, the fans celebrated their local hero throughout the entire tournament weekend and even in his absence with frenetic chants of ‘Mensur’ after his matches.
The European Tour also continues in style: it bids farewell to Styria and moves on to the traditional ELTEN Safety Shoes European Darts Grand Prix in Sindelfingen.
