The penultimate Players Championship double-header will take place in Den Bosch over the next two days. Currently it is Mike De Decker with £29.250 sitting in the last spot, which secures qualification for the Players Championship Finals.

Although Ross Smith had the third-worst tournament average of all European Champions, his campaign was realtively straight forward. Only Karel Sedláček had him on the ropes. The Czech missed 1 dart at double to go 5-4 up and then missed 5 more to take the game to a deciding leg.

Ross Smith is only the third player to win the European Championship as the number one seed, joining Phil Taylor and Michael van Gerwen (Both did it 4 times). In recent years various top-seeded players struggled to even win more than one game.

📊 𝗘𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝘁𝘀 - 𝗘𝘂𝗿𝗼𝗽𝗲𝗮𝗻 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗺𝗽𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲 𝟵𝟱.𝟰𝟬 ▪️ Average 𝟭𝟬𝟯.𝟲𝟳 ▪️ First-9 Average 𝟯𝟴.𝟭𝟰 % ▪️ Doubles 𝟱𝟵 ▪️ 100+ Finishes 𝟮𝟮𝟮 ▪️ 180s

Ross Smith has broken Martin Schindler’s throw more often than his other four opponents combined. 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗻 𝗦𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗱𝗹𝗲𝗿 - 𝗛𝗼𝗹𝗱 𝗼𝗳 𝗧𝗵𝗿𝗼𝘄 5/9 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Ross Smith 6/8 🇵🇱 Krzysztof Ratajski 6/6 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Jonny Clayton 7/7 🇳🇱 Jermaine Wattimena 5/6 🇳🇱 Wessel Nijman

2️⃣ Only Littler made the top-10 twice ❌ Woodhouse lost in the quarters averaging 103.40 ✅ Wattimena won with the second worst average ⚖️ Only Schindler is in the top-10 and the flop-10

The final itself is a good instance of how a checkout % like this comes about. Up to his 8-2 lead Ross Smith was relentless... 𝟱𝟳.𝟭% (𝟴/𝟭𝟰) ▪️ First 10 Legs 𝟭𝟱.𝟬 % (𝟯/𝟮𝟬) ▪️ Next 9 Legs

What makes Ross Smith's victory the more impressive, he did it with a poor checkout percentage. In fact, by far the worst of any European Champion... 34.8 % - (48/138) 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Ross Smith 2026 39.3 % - (48/122) 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Rob Cross 2021 39.7 % - (48/121) 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Peter Wright 2023

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Ross Smith 📊 Tournament Statistics 𝟵𝟱.𝟵𝟳 - Average 𝟭𝟬𝟴.𝟳𝟵 - First-9 Average 𝟯𝟰.𝟳𝟴 % - Double 𝟯𝟱 - 180s

Ross Smith has won all of his 13 titles in the last 5 years! 🏆 𝗠𝗮𝗷𝗼𝗿 𝗧𝗶𝘁𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲 European Championship 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲 World Series Finals 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟮 European Championship 🏆 𝗣𝗿𝗼 𝗧𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗧𝗶𝘁𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝟴𝘅 Players Championship 𝟮𝘅 European Tour

Ross Smith joins an elite circle of players, who have won the European Championship on multiple occasions. 𝗘𝘂𝗿𝗼𝗽𝗲𝗮𝗻 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗺𝗽𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 𝗧𝗶𝘁𝗹𝗲𝘀 4 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Phil Taylor 4 🇳🇱 Michael van Gerwen 2 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Rob Cross 2 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Peter Wright 2 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Ross Smith ✚1️⃣ 1 ▪️ 5 players

Ross Smith takes the title at the European Championship in Dortmund and becomes the 5th player to win the tournament multiple times. It is the third major title and the 13th title in total for „Smudger“.

Martin Schindler is the first German player to win a major semifinal. 🇩🇪 Martin Schindler ✅ European Championship 2026 🇩🇪 Max Hopp ❌ European Championship 2018 🇩🇪 Gabriel Clemens ❌ World Championship 2023 🇩🇪 Gabriel Clemens ❌ Players Championship Finals 2023

Martin Schindler is the first German player to reach a major final and he does so on home soil at the European Championship in Dortmund. His opponent in the final will be Ross Smith, who previously has been victorious at the tournament in 2022.

Ross Smith is the first player through to the final of the European Championship 2026. It is his second final at the tournament after defeating Michael in 2022 to take the title.

Semifinalists - H2H tournament statistics

While the first two quarterfinals went according to plan with the two favorites coming through, we saw two huge upsets in the final two games of the session. 2026 European Championship - Semifinals 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Ross Smith - Gerwyn Price 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 🇩🇪 Martin Schindler - Krzysztof Ratajski 🇵🇱

The Polish Eagle Krzysztof Ratajski flies into the semifinals after eliminating the World Number one Luke Littler. In his first semifinal at the European Championship the Pole will meet Martin Schindler.

Martin Schindler has held his throw 16 in a row now. He was only broken by Wessel Nijman in the 5th leg of his first round game. Hold of Throw 6/6 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Jonny Clayton 7/7 🇳🇱 Jermaine Wattimena 5/6 🇳🇱 Wessel Nijman

Martin Schindler has thrown his 5th 100+ average at the European Championship. 104.05 🇩🇪 Martin Schindler (2025, L32) 103.16 🇩🇪 Martin Schindler (2026, QF) 🆕 101.78 🇩🇪 Martin Schindler (2024, L32) 101.33 🇩🇪 Martin Schindler (2017, L32 ) 101.15 🇩🇪 Martin Schindler (2022, L32)