Ricardo Pietreczko became the fourth German player to reach the second round of the Darts World Cup.
The Berlin native sat down in his opening game on the sixth day of the tournament London Alexandra Palace with 3:1 sets against the former major winner José de Sousa from Portugal. Pietreczko will next face England’s Fallon Sherrock or her compatriot Dave Chisnall.
Small dip in the third round
Pietreczko, who reached the round of 16 last year, could rely on his double strength. In the first two sets, the world number 33 remained strong in the deciding leg. Although “Pikachu” gave up the third round after a small slump, he then found his game again and converted his third Match darts.
“In the middle of the third set I suddenly had circulatory problems and my vision was black.”said “Pikachu” on the “Sport1” microphone. Pietreczko explained that he was a little hypoglycemic, and there was also the heat on stage: “I’m going to eat a chocolate bar first and then we’ll see if it gets better. Then I’ll go to the hotel and go to sleep quickly.”
Due to the first round elimination, the former top 10 player de Sousa, who had fallen so far in 2020, loses the Grand Slam won and in the final the following year Premier League had confessed, his tour card.
Merk, Clemens and Hopp are also one lap further
So far, from a German perspective, only Lukas Wenig has been eliminated in the first round; in addition to Pietreczko, Arno Merk, Gabriel Clemens and Max Hopp also progressed. Niko Springer could join them late in the evening; the highly gifted Mainz player will face Australian Joe Comito in the last game of the session (around 11:10 p.m.).
German number one Martin Schindler faces Englishman Stephen Burton on Wednesday evening. Debutant Dominik Grüllich is the last participant from Germany to enter the XXL tournament on Thursday evening against the Dutchman Jermaine Wattimena.