Mensur Suljovic

AUSTRIAN star Mensur broke into the world's top ten in 2016 after reaching his first televised final at the European Championship to follow his maiden ranking title during a successful year.

The Serbian-born thrower was initially a soft-tip star on the continent and a former World Masters quarter-finalist before making his PDC World Championship debut at the 2008 event.

Having gained further experience on the circuit over the following five years, with the introduction of the European Tour and World Cup of Darts providing greater opportunities for the Austrian ace, Suljovic went on to reach his first TV quarter-finals at the UK Open in 2014 and 2015.

Runs to the semi-finals of the 2015 World Grand Prix and Players Championship Finals followed before Suljovic claimed his first PDC ranking win at a European Tour event in September 2016.

Mensur then won through to his maiden TV final at the European Championship, where Michael van Gerwen denied him glory on the big stage.

The Austrian continued his strong form into 2017, making the finals of the Gibraltar Darts Trophy and the European Matchplay before making the last eight of the World Matchplay.

Suljovic claimed the biggest win of his career in September 2017, defeating Gary Anderson 11-9 in a thrilling Champions League of Darts final.

The gentle giant picked up his second televised PDC title at the German Darts Masters in May 2018, beating Dimitri van den Bergh 8-2 in the final, before backing this up with a Danish Darts Open title the following month.

Mensur came agonisingly close to a third televised title at the 2018 World Matchplay, going down 21-19 to Gary Anderson in a classic final.