The 2025 Hungarian Darts Trophy will go down as a career-defining event for Niko Springer.
This year is Springer's first year with a tour card, and he's already made good use of it.
He was a win away from a Euro Tour title in the Netherlands earlier this year, but in Hungary, he was finally able to get over the hump.
Springer defies odds of talented slate of opponents to win title
Winning a Euro Tour event title is an accomplishment in itself, but Springer did it in the hardest way possible.
Not being a seed meant he had to play in the first round on Friday, and he received Gian van Veen as an opponent. This is one of the worst draws Springer could have received, but it didn't faze him.
Despite averaging almost 10 points below van Veen in the match, he came away with a 6-3 win, advancing him to the second round on Saturday.
MORE: 2025 Hungarian Darts Trophy: Draw, schedule, prize money and format
On Saturday, he comfortably took down Damon Heta, winning 6-1 and averaging 96.31.
Springer then took on former World Champion, Rob Cross, in the third round, beating him 6-3.
The next few games would go on to be thrillers/nail-bitters that solidified this weekend's effort as one of the best we've seen from an unseeded player on the Euro Tour in recent memory.
The German faced world number one, Luke Humphries, in the quarterfinals, taking him down 6-4. He went 6/11 on doubles, including a 130 checkout.
Springer played another extremely close contest in the semifinal, taking on one of the game's most consistent players right now. He beat Josh Rock 7-6, averaging over a ton in a huge win to advance him to his second Euro Tour final of the year.
I'm not sure many could have predicted this weekend's final, as Niko Springer has a showdown with Danny Noppert.
Noppert has had his fair share of Euro Tour runs in his career, but this was just his third final appearance in eight years of competing on the European Tour.
Neither player had won a Euro Tour event in their career, so no matter the winner, we were guarenteed to see a career milestone occur on Sunday.
Noppert was able to force a last-leg decider after trailing in the best-of-15 game, but Springer came up clutch and took the win out of Noppert's sight.
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How does this help Springer with major season ahead?
Springer moved up four spots on the Main OoM, inching closer to the top 64, and currently sits as world number 66.
With a win today, Springer is now a provisional qualifier for the World Grand Prix next month, just in time for the cutoff date that is quickly approaching (Sept. 29). He's £8,250 clear of the first player outside of the qualifying positioning for World Grand Prix Pro Tour OoM qualifiers.
Regarding the European Championship in a couple of months, he has moved up and is now the seventh seed on that OoM.
Despite being in good position to qualify for these two important events, he has some work to do with the race for the Players Championship Finals. He's only £500 clear of being in the top 64, so he'll have to find some of his 2025 Euro Tour magic, on the floor at the Players Championships events to finish off the year.
Springer will be back in action next weekend at the Swiss Darts Trophy, after qualifying on Sept. 11 at the ET13 tour-card qualifier event.
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