With a lot of anticipation and decidedly relaxed, Dragutin Horvat starts the Darts World Cup as the biggest underdog of the German quintet.
“I’ll enjoy it,” the 47-year-old told “SID” before his opening match against Belgian Mike De Decker on Tuesday (around 9:10 p.m.): “I’m totally relaxed and calm.”
After Florian Hempel became the first German to win his first round match on Sunday, “Hercules” wants to follow suit.
Horvat also has his employer to thank for the fact that he is even competing at London’s Alexandra Palace. When the warehouse clerk from Kassel qualified for the German Super League in November, he no longer had any vacation days. “I now have special leave,” explained Horvat, who is the only German player without professional status at the World Cup.
His second participation after 2017 is therefore not a given. The fact that he is so relaxed about his return to the Ally Pally stage is a big difference to his first appearance there.
“It was just too much the first time,” said Horvat: “I was too excited and too nervous.” At that time he had no chance of losing to the seeded Australian Simon Whitlock in the first round.
This year too, Horvat clearly occupies the outsider role. That’s one of the reasons why he expects a “50:50 game” against De Decker. The world number 37. is exposed to greater pressure, said Horvat: “Everyone sees him as the favorite and that might make my job a little easier.”
No matter how it turns out – after his game, Horvat wants to stay in the Ally Pally and support Nuremberg’s Ricardo Pietreczko, who starts the tournament against the Japanese Mikuru Suzuki (approx. 10:10 p.m.).