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Ricardo Pietreczko
German darts player (born 1994) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Ricardo Pietreczko (born 20 October 1994) is a German professional darts player. Nicknamed "Pikachu" after the character from Pokémon, he competes in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events, where he is currently ranked world number twenty-eight. He won his maiden PDC title at the 2023 German Darts Championship and reached his first major quarter-final at the 2024 European Championship.
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Pietreczko started playing darts at the age of 16 after his father put a dartboard in his room and he trained diligently before and after school. In 2014, he took part in qualifiers for PDC European Tour events, but was not able to qualify. At the national level, however, he was doing much better. He advanced to the semi-finals of the Super League Darts. In 2016, he took part in the 4 Nations Cup for the Germany team and reached the semi-finals in singles competition, where he lost to Wesley Harms 5–3 in legs.
At the beginning of 2017, he played at the Dinslaken Open and reached the final, where he lost to Daniel Zygla. As the third in the national ranking of qualifying tour for the WDF World Cup, he qualified to participate in the 2017 WDF World Cup as a representative of Germany. In the singles competition, he won the bronze medal, lost in the semi-final to Raymond Smith by 1–6 in legs. Pietreczko also made his debut at the 2017 World Masters, where he advanced to the fourth round. In his fourth round match, he lost to Neil Duff 3–0 in sets.[4]
At the end of February 2018, Pietreczko won the Donnersberg Cup in Rockenhausen, and in mid-June he won the German Championship for the first time. At the beginning of September, Pietreczko qualified for a PDC European Tour event, the 2018 International Darts Open, but lost in the first round to Ryan Searle 6–4 in legs. The next day, Pietreczko won the DDV ranking tournament in Steinfurt. Pietreczko was appointed by the national federation to represent Germany at the 2018 WDF Europe Cup. In the singles competition, he advanced to the third round where he lost to Ross Montgomery. In pairs and team competition, he was eliminated in the earlier stage.[5]
He played at the 2018 World Masters, where he advanced to the fifth round, where he lost to seeded Willem Mandigers 3–1 in sets.[6] In mid-November, Pietreczko made a successful return to the Super League Darts, when he won the qualifier in Düsseldorf. In May 2019, he qualified for the 2019 European Darts Grand Prix, where he lost in first round match to Jamie Hughes by 1–6 in legs. In October 2020, Pietreczko achieved his first victory on the Professional Darts Corporation stage, during the 2020 European Darts Grand Prix. In the first round match, he beat Luke Woodhouse by 6–1 in legs, but in the second round match he lost to José de Sousa. In 2021, he participated in the PDC Challenge Tour events.
2022
In January 2022, Pietreczko earned a PDC Tour Card at PDC Q-School by finishing ninth on the European Q-School Order of Merit.[7] In October, he reached his first semi-final on the PDC Pro Tour at Players Championship 28, a run that included wins over Ryan Meikle, Gabriel Clemens and Ross Smith. He was defeated by Luke Humphries 7–2.[8] Pietreczko made his televised PDC debut at the 2022 Players Championship Finals and caused a major upset by beating number one seed Damon Heta 6–5 in the first round.[9]
2023
In March 2023, Pietreczko reached his second Pro Tour semi-final at Players Championship 8; he defeated Jonny Clayton, Keegan Brown and Ross Smith before losing 7–2 to Krzysztof Ratajski.[10] At the European Darts Open, he reached the quarter-finals, narrowly losing 6–5 to Rob Cross.[11]
In October, Pietreczko won his first PDC title at the 2023 German Darts Championship – the final event on the 2023 European Tour. Having previously beaten George Killington and Stephen Bunting before a 7–6 win over world number two Michael van Gerwen in the semi-finals, he claimed the title by defeating two-time world champion Peter Wright 8–4 in the final without missing a dart at double.[12] The victory saw him become the second German player to win a PDC ranking title after Max Hopp, while also securing him qualification for the European Championship.[13]
In his European Championship debut, he won his first-round match 6–3 against defending champion Ross Smith.[14] He was eliminated in the second round, losing 10–7 to Michael van Gerwen.[15]
2024
Pietreczko reached the third round of the 2024 PDC World Championship in his PDC World Championship debut campaign. Despite a 3–1 lead over world number three Luke Humphries, he was eliminated from the tournament as Humphries came back to win 4–3.[16]
In the first event of the 2024 European Tour, the Belgian Darts Open, he reached the semi-finals where he met 2024 World Championship runner-up Luke Littler. Pietreczko was defeated 7–3 but the tie was more remembered for its post-match incident, where Pietreczko confronted Littler unhappily. He later posted on Instagram that he hoped "his [Littler's] arrogance punishes him."[17][18] In September, Pietreczko reached his second European Tour final at the Flanders Darts Trophy after beating Luke Humphries 7–4 to become the first German player to reach two European Tour finals. He was beaten in the final 8–6 by Dave Chisnall.[19][20]
Pietreczko made his World Matchplay and World Grand Prix debuts in 2024.[21][22] He was defeated 10–4 in the first round of the World Matchplay by Luke Humphries,[23] who also eliminated him from the World Grand Prix in the second round.[24]
Pietreczko reached the quarter-finals of the European Championship after victories over Damon Heta and Andrew Gilding.[25] He was denied a place in the semi-finals by Danny Noppert, who came back from 9–7 down to defeat Pietreczko 10–9 in a deciding leg.[26]
2025
After defeating Xiaochen Zong 3–0 in the first round of the 2025 World Championship,[27] Pietreczko beat 28th seed Gian van Veen 3–1 to progress to the third round.[28] He then secured a 4–1 victory over 2024 semi-finalist Scott Williams.[29] In the fourth round, he only managed a three-dart average of 78.46 in a 4–0 defeat to Nathan Aspinall.[30]
Pietreczko represented Germany at the PDC World Cup of Darts for the first time, partnering Martin Schindler. The German duo produced a shock 8–4 win against defending champions and tournament favourites England in the second round.[31][32] They reached the semi-finals of the tournament but were eliminated by eventual champions Northern Ireland.[33]
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World Championship results
PDC
- 2024: Third round (lost to Luke Humphries 3–4)
- 2025: Fourth round (lost to Nathan Aspinall 0–4)
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