Ricardo Pietreczko was the only German participant to reach the quarter-finals at the European Darts Championship in Dortmund.
A few hours after Martin Schindler’s exit, the Berliner beat last year’s finalist Jermaine Wattimena from the Netherlands 10:6 and moved into the round of the last eight at the major tournament for the second time in a row.
Like last year, the opponent there is Danny Noppert, who defeated number one seeded Brit Nathan Aspinall 10:7. At that time, the Dutchman had the upper hand in an exciting game with 10:9.
Against Wattimena, the 31-year-old Pietreczko earned an early break by checking a 164 over the bulls eye. Wattimena, who defeated the third German participant Niko Springer in the first round on Friday, had big problems in the doubles.
Pietreczko delivered another highlight with a checked 125 to make it 7:4 and made the victory a little later.
World champion Luke Littler surprisingly failed with a score of 7:10 against his English compatriot James Wade. The 18-year-old prodigy had to give up his hope of winning his first European Championship title as well as of reaching the top of the world rankings.
There is a prize money of 600,000 pounds
Schindler had previously made life difficult for himself with a poor check-out rate of just under 26 percent. The world number 17. won the first leg, but was always behind after that. He was able to equalize at 3:3, but he couldn’t get any closer than 5:6 and 7:8 despite a better three-dart average.
On Thursday, the Strausberger won his first game at a European Championship at the sixth attempt. In the dramatic first round match, the 29-year-old defeated the Englishman Dave Chisnall (6:5). At the start, Pietreczko surprisingly eliminated team world champion Josh Rock from Northern Ireland (6:4).
Two Germans had never made it to the round of 16 at the European Championships.
Max Hopp achieved the best result by a player from Germany in 2018 when he reached the semi-finals. In Dortmund there is prize money totaling 600,000 pounds.