After six fantastic days of action including two group stages and the knockout stage on Wednesday and Thursday Martin Schindler is the winner of the 2021 HYLO PDC Europe Super League. So the 24 year old already booked his World Championship ticket early and will compete in the 2022 World Darts Championship for the third time in his career at the famous Alexandra Palace in London.
On the way to the title “The Wall” survived two absolute battles of nerves on today’s final day. Already in the semi-final against Max Hopp, with whom Schindler represented Germany three times at the World Cup of Darts, the deciding leg was needed to bring about a decision. But at 9:9 the man from Strausberg kept his nerve and defeated the former German number one with 10:9.
In the final Florian Hempel was the next big challenge for Schindler as Hempel is one of seven German Tour Card holders since February 2021. Hempel had defeated Dragutin Horvat 10-7 in the semi-finals after “Hercules” had knocked out the two-time defending Super League champion, Nico Kurz, in the quarter-finals on Wednesday.
In the final both players did not find their scoring like they often had during the tournament, but the fans were treated to a real nail-biter. At 6:6 Schindler won three legs in a row and should have been 10:6 in the front. But the 2019 Super League finalist missed five darts at double as Hempel levelled at 10-10.
After the Dessau native missed two match darts in the decider, Schindler was finally on hand with his fifth dart to win the match and secured the title and a World Championship spot.
“I just can’t put it into words and at some points I didn’t expect to win the match. But in the end nobody cares anymore and I am over the moon,” said the champion shortly after his victory.
“It’s a big relief to know that I will definitely be in the upcoming World Cup. This will give me a bit more peace in the upcoming tournaments to get good results,” Schindler stated.
With this, the German Elite League comes to an end after six partly spectacular days that produced some surprises.
After the field of participants had been increased to 24 players this year and some debutants had joined in, some of the established players got into trouble.
Robert Marijanovic and Steffen Siepmann, two of the seven German Tour Card holders, had to drop out in the preliminary round, while the newcomers Florian Hempel, Lukas Wenig, Niko Springer, Marcel Gerdon, Stefan Nilles, Franz Rötzsch and Marco Obst all managed to reach the main round. Super League returnee Michael Hurtz, who had previously competed from 2014 to 2018, also made it to the last 16.
