Ricardo Pietreczko made a successful European Championship debut and surprisingly defeated defending darts champion Ross Smith. The 29-year-old from Nuremberg, nicknamed Pikachu, beat the Englishman Smith 6-3 in Dortmund and secured his place in the round of 16.
In the round of the last 16, Pietreczko will face Dutch favorite Michael van Gerwen. “I can’t believe it,” said Pietreczko in his first reaction. “It was the biggest arena I’ve ever played in.”
The German debutant was not affected by a heated argument in the audience in the early stages. Pietreczko observed a fight breaking out between fans right near the stage. One of the supporters could not be controlled and even several security employees could not get him out of the hall for several minutes.
Van Gerwen narrowly wins against Razma
Before the German’s game, which marked the end of the evening in front of over 5,000 spectators, several of the favorites mastered their compulsory tasks.
Van Gerwen had to tremble a lot in the narrow 6:5 win over Madars Razma (Latvia). Razma missed two match darts to decide. England’s Luke Humphries, who earned the most prize money in the 2023 calendar year, had no problems in the 6-1 win against Brendan Dolan from Northern Ireland.
The round of 16 are on the program on Saturday. Before Pietreczko, Gabriel Clemens and Martin Schindler were eliminated on Thursday evening. Both Clemens and Schindler have never won a game in a European championship.