Preview final session German Darts Championship 2025: Wright, Aspinall, Van Veen still in title hunt

The German Darts Championship will be concluded on Sunday night with Peter Wright, Nathan Aspinall and Gian van Veen are among those still hunting for the title.

The event in Germany is the last in the series of fourteen Euro Tour tournaments in 2025. A classic Euro Tour tournament, moreover, as the German Darts Championship has been part of the calendar since 2012.
Follow the German Darts Championship 2025 via our live scores!

The first edition of the German Darts Championship was won by Phil Taylor in Berlin in 2012. Since 2013, the tournament has been played annually at Halle 39 in Hildesheim. It is a tournament, moreover, which has seen many different winners. Following Taylor, Dave Chisnall (2013), Gary Anderson (2014), Michael van Gerwen (2015, 2018 and 2022), Alan Norris (2016), Peter Wright (2017 and 2024), Daryl Gurney (2019), Devon Petersen (2020) and Ricardo Pietreczko (2023) also managed to put their names on the list of honor.

There is a good chance that the last edition of the German Darts Championship, since the tournament will not return in 2026, will feature a new name on the honor roll. Of the eight quarter-finalists, Peter Wright is the only player who has won the event before.

We begin the evening with a Dutch showdown between Danny Noppert and Gian van Veen. Both players managed to win from a darter from Wales on Sunday afternoon. Noppert trailed 0-4 in his match against Gerwyn Price, but came up with an unparalleled comeback and eventually won the match 6-5 after Price missed a handful of matchdarts in the last leg. Van Veen gave his compatriot Jonny Clayton a beating and secured a place in the last eight with a 6-1 victory.

It is the fifth time this season for Noppert to reach the finals of a Euro Tour. At the Hungarian Darts Trophy, 'The Freeze' even made it to the final, but just like at the Austrian Darts Open and Dutch Darts Championship in 2022, Noppert missed out on the overall victory. Van Veen also reports for the fifth time in the quarterfinals of a Euro Tour in 2025. 'GVV The Giant' was the runner-up at the German Darts Grand Prix earlier this season, which was his second lost Euro Tour final.

The two Dutchmen faced each other eleven times before, and seven times Van Veen emerged victorious, including at the Czech Darts Open in September. Then Van Veen won 6-2 over his compatriot.

The two standouts of the third round meet in the quarterfinals. Nathan Aspinall did not let Steve Lennon down and eliminated the Irishman 6-2 by throwing an average of 110.77. Yet that was not the highest average of the afternoon session, as that average was surpassed by Jermaine Wattimena. 'The Machine Gun' defeated compatriot Wessel Nijman 6-2 thanks to an average of exactly 111.00.

A Euro Tour quarterfinal is not unknown territory for Wattimena, as the dart player from Westervoort has done this five times before. Wattimena, however, never reached the semifinals on the Euro Tour. Aspinall on the other hand is having the best Euro Tour season of his career. The Asp was the best at the European Darts Trophy and the European Darts Open, his first two Euro Tour titles ever.

In the head-to-head, Aspinall leads comfortably 8-2, but the mental advantage might lie with Wattimena. The two players met earlier this week in the final of Players Championship 31 and then it was Wattimena who took the title with an 8-2 win at Aspinall's expense.

The defending champion is still on course for title defece in Hildesheim. Peter Wright surprised with the title at last year's German Darts Championship by defeating Luke Littler in the final. At this edition, 'Snakebite' fought his way past Ricardo Pietreczko (6-5) and Cameron Menzies (6-4) for a spot in the last eight, but he will now play the man who has impressed the most so far this weekend. Dirk van Duijvenbode threw a nine darter in his opening match against Karel Sedlacek (6-4) on Friday and recorded an average of a whopping 117.74 in his second round match against Chris Dobey (6-2). At the last sixteen, 'Aubergenius' also showed resilience, as against Martin Schindler he turned a 3-5 deficit into a 6-5 victory.

Wright is in his fourth Euro Tour quarterfinal of 2025, but has yet to make it to the final four. Van Duijvenbode did earlier at the European Darts Grand Prix in Sindelfingen. In terms of experience, the Dutchman cannot match the numbers of his Scottish opponent. Van Duijvenbode only played two Euro Tour finals, in 2023, and lost both of them. Wright already stood in 20 Euro Tour finals, of which he managed to turn nine into wins.

Looking at the balance between them, the standings are balanced. They have met ten times, and both players managed to win five times. The most recent encounter was at Players Championship 29 early this month. Then the victory went 6-0 to Van Duijvenbode.

In recent years Dave Chisnall was one of the most successful players on the Euro Tour, with six titles in the period 2022 to 2024, but this year Chisnall had to pull out all the stops to qualify for the European Championship. That finally succeeded by dealing with Ricky Evans (6-2) on Sunday afternoon. Krzysztof Ratajski, already assured of participation in the final tournament in Dortmund, triumphed 6-2 against Ryan Joyce.

It is only his second Euro Tour quarterfinal of the year for Ratajski, who has two Euro Tour titles to his name. Chisnall also now only reaches two, as only at the Belgian Darts Open, the first Euro Tour tournament of 2025, did he reach the quarterfinals.

In the past, Ratajski has proved to be a tough customer for Chisnall, as the Pole won 10 of the previous 14 clashes between them. They met earlier this season in the final of Players Championship 15, when Ratajski triumphed 8-4.