Mensur Suljovic is the last player to secure a place in the quarter-finals of the European Championship. The Gentle won in front of his own audience in Salzburg with 10-9 against Florian Hempel.
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Suljovic made it unnecessarily difficult for himself against Hempel. The Austrian had a 9-6 lead, but was not out within five turns in the sixteenth leg. In the seventeenth leg, Suljovic missed his first two match darts and Hempel closed the gap to 9-8 as he hit double 9. Suljovic missed another two match darts and Hempel used a 56 check-out to force a deciding leg. In a nervous last leg, Suljovic won the match by making use of his eighth matchdart via tops.
The four quarter-finals will be played on Sunday afternoon. Suljovic will take on Joe Cullen. The tie of the afternoon is between Gerwyn Price and Michael van Gerwen, the world numbers one and three. With Danny Noppert there is a second Dutchman in the tournament. He meets Nathan Aspinall, while Rob Cross takes on José de Sousa.
I stumbled into the world of darts quite by accident back in 2013. For a Journalism School assignment, I had to produce a live sports report and as it happened, the European Tour event in Veldhoven was the only available option. That weekend, I caught the darts bug. The post-match interviews especially appealed to me, as darts players tend to be much more open and approachable than what you usually see with footballers on television.
After a few detours, I joined Dartsnieuws.com in 2017 as editor-in-chief. I don’t have much competitive experience myself, although I once entered a PDC Development Tour weekend just to experience what it’s like from a player’s perspective. I even managed to win a leg against a Tour Card holder and, quite by accident, earned £50 in prize money.
In 2022, I was also involved in the founding of the TOTO Dart Kings, a commercial darts team, where I worked as media manager for three years. Unfortunately, due to new legislation in the Netherlands, that project came to an end in 2025.
Through my work in darts, I’ve been fortunate to travel to some incredible events, from Premier League nights at Ahoy Rotterdam, to several World Championships, and even the US Darts Masters at Madison Square Garden in New York.
Beyond darts, I’m a passionate sports fan in general. You can always wake me up for a game of tennis or padel, and I love following football, tennis, padel, cycling, Formula 1, and ice skating.
𝗗𝗘𝗖𝗜𝗗𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗟𝗘𝗚 𝗗𝗥𝗔𝗠𝗔!
Mensur Suljovic somehow finds his way through to double top with his last dart to get over the line against Florian Hempel.
A magnificent contest to end the night in Salzburg! 👏