Max Hopp continues his appealing early form in 2026 – including 9-darters.
The 29-year-old played his way into the third round of the sixth Players Championship tournament of the season in Leicester on Wednesday.
Hopp initially defeated World Cup quarter-finalist Krzysztof Ratajski 6:5 and impressed with an average of 96.46. The “Maximiser” then prevailed against Adam Warner 6-1, with an average of 89.63 points. In the third round, the Hesse native increased to an average of 100.20 and even played a 9-darter, but ultimately had to admit defeat 4:6 against Thibault Tricole (105.05).
On Tuesday, Hopp had already advanced to the third round of the fifth Players Championship event of the year, beating former world champion Rob Cross, among others.
At the sixth Players Championship tournament on Wednesday, Martin Schindler and Lukas Wenig also made it into the top 32. Arno Merk, Maximilian Czerwinski, Leon Weber and Yorick Hofkens each finished in the second round.
Gabriel Clemens, Kai Gotthardt, Niko Springer, Marvin Kraft, Dominik Grüllich, Matthias Ehlers and Ricardo Pietreczko each lost their opening game.
Big darts highlight is coming up
Springer and Pietreczko made it into the round of 16 as the best German darts professionals on Tuesday.
The first big major highlight of 2026 is on the agenda for Hopp, Clemens, Schindler and Co. next week. The prestigious UK Open will take place in Minehead from March 6th to 8th.
The prize money here is a total of 750,000 pounds (around 860,000 euros). The winner alone collects 120,000 pounds (approx. 138,000 euros). The special thing about the UK Open: There is no seeding list, instead there is a new draw before each round. The tournament is therefore often referred to as the “FA Cup of Darts”.
