Dave Chisnall emerges triumphant at European Darts Open in Leverkusen

Dave Chisnall returned to the winners circle on Sunday night with victory at the European Darts Open in Leverkusen.

The eighth event of the PDC European Tour at Oster mann-Arena featured an all-English final and Chisnall was able to edge out compatriot Ross Smith by an 8-6 score to claim his maiden success on the European Tour this year.

Earlier in the day, Ryan Searle earned a shock first win over Michael van Gerwen during the afternoon session, but he was knocked out by Chisnall in the quarter-finals in a final-leg decider.

The stacked other side of the draw contained Raymond van Barneveld, who could not follow up his Saturday night win over Luke Humphries and exited 6-1 Gian van Veen.

Van Veen pushed eventual runner-up Smith all the way in the last eight before the ninth seed was able to progress 6-5 to set up a semi-final tie with namesake Michael Smith.

Smith had silenced the home crowd with a tense victory over Martin Schindler, but could not maintain his level and despite a valiant fightback from 6-2 down, the world number three lost out to Ross Smith 7-5.

Ross Smith, who survived a match dart to beat Antrim's Josh Rock in the third round, faced Chisnall in the final.

Chisnall had thrashed Damon Heta 7-1 to book his place in the showpiece and followed it up with an 8-6 triumph over Smith to win his first European Tour event since the Hungarian Darts Trophy in September and his seventh overall.

"Thanks for the messages everyone. Nice to get the Euro Tour win," Chisnall said on X, formerly known as Twitter.

"Hopefully not the only Englishman to be winning stuff in Germany this summer."