Ricardo Pietreczko will still be at the Darts World Cup after Christmas. The 30-year-old from Hanover defeated junior world champion Gian van Veen. On the other hand, Florian Hempel was eliminated by Daryl Gurney from Northern Ireland.
Ricardo Pietreczko was the first and only German professional to make it into the third round of this year’s Darts World Cup. The 30-year-old from Hanover defeated junior world champion Gian van Veen from the Netherlands with 3:1 sets and thus equaled his previous World Cup best performance from his premiere last year.
“I’m a bit exhausted right now. I feel really, really great that I’ll still be there after Christmas.”said Pietreczko with a broad grin on “DAZN”. As with the first round win against the Chinese Zong Xiaochen, he didn’t even know that he had “such a good double rate”: “I just played my game and didn’t pay any attention to it.”
Round three is for “Pikachu” in London Alexandra Palace now on Saturday (December 28th, 2024) against the Welshman Scott Williams, who knocked the “Meenzer Bub” Niko Springer out of the tournament in the first round and most recently surprisingly defeated the 2018 world champion Rob Cross.
Double problems for van Veen
Against van Veen, who is six places higher in the world rankings as 28th in the Order of Merit of the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC), Pietreczko used the first match dart after a solid performance. In the 3-0 march in the first set, the German benefited primarily from his opponent’s double problems, who were unable to capitalize on any of his nine attempts.
Van Veen won the second round without a double miss, but Pietreczko, who improved as the match progressed, hit back with two leg wins in a row.
Hempel loses in a close match
Florian Hempel, on the other hand, lost 2:3 to Daryl Gurney from Northern Ireland. When he was leading the set 2-1 in the fourth round, he had the feeling “that I can finish it”said Hempel in the “DAZN” interview, “and exactly at that moment the triples leave me”.
In the end there was a millimeter missing by which Hempel missed double 20, allowing Gurney the decisive match darts. “I’m obviously disappointed that I’m out, but not with the performance,” Hempel said.
An increase in performance with many triple hits in the decisive fifth set helped Gurney to defeat the 34-year-old from Cologne in a close game. “Superchin” will meet Jonny Clayton from Wales after the Christmas holidays.
Clemens and Schindler are already out
Before the last day of competition before Christmas, four of the six Germans had already been eliminated. Gabriel Clemens (1:3 against Robert Owen) and Martin Schindler (0:3 against Callan Rydz) did not live up to their role as favorites at the start. It wasn’t enough for Niko Springer and Kai Gotthardt to make it to the round of the last 32 either.
The 3rd round and the round of 16 will take place from December 27th to 30th. In the new year, the last seven games from the quarter-finals onwards will take place.