German darts player
Darts player
Ricardo Pietreczko (born 20 October 1994), nicknamed "Pikachu", is a German professional darts player who currently plays in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events. He won his maiden PDC title at the 2023 German Darts Championship and reached the quarter-finals at the 2024 European Championship.
Career
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 a qualifiers for the PDC European Tour events, but for a long time he was not able to qualify for any international tournament. 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 by 3–5 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 by 0–3 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 finally qualified for the PDC European Tour event. During the 2018 International Darts Open he lost in the first round match to Ryan Searle by 4–6 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 by 1–3 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.
In January 2022, he earned a PDC Tour Card during the PDC Q-School event.[7] His debut at the 2022 UK Open was successful, but he was defeated in the second round match by Zoran Lerchbacher. In October, Pietreczko reached the semi-finals in 2022 PDC Players Championship series and lost to Luke Humphries. In addition, Pietreczko was again at the start of the Super League Darts, where he made it to the quarter-finals. There he was defeated by Niko Springer in the decider leg. At the 2022 Players Championship Finals, he beat Damon Heta in the first round match, before losing to Callan Rydz in the second round.[8]
In 2023, he started his season with a loss to Jelle Klaasen in the second round match of the 2023 UK Open. In March, he reached his second semi-finals in 2023 PDC Players Championship series. At the 2023 European Darts Open, he achieved quarter-finals after victories over Geert Nentjes, Peter Wright and Stephen Bunting. In his quarter-finals match he lost only 5–6 in legs to Rob Cross. At the 2023 Austrian Darts Open, he beat Cameron Menzies in first round and narrowly lost in the second round match to Michael Smith. At the 2023 Dutch Darts Championship he lost in the first round to Daryl Gurney. At the 2023 European Darts Grand Prix he narrowly lost in the first round match to Steve Beaton. During 2023 European Darts Matchplay he white-washed his compatriot Fabian Herz in the first round match. In the second round, he was beaten by Dimitri Van den Bergh.
Pietreczko won his first PDC title at the 2023 German Darts Championship, the final event on the 2023 European Tour, beating Peter Wright in the final having earlier dispatched of Michael van Gerwen.[9]
World Championship results
PDC
PDC European Tour
PDC Players Championships
| Performance Table Legend
|
| W
|
Won the tournament
|
F
|
Finalist
|
SF
|
Semifinalist
|
QF
|
Quarterfinalist
|
#R
RR
Prel.
|
Lost in # round
Round-robin
Preliminary round
|
DQ
|
Disqualified
|
| DNQ
|
Did not qualify
|
DNP
|
Did not participate
|
WD
|
Withdrew
|
NH
|
Tournament not held
|
NYF
|
Not yet founded
|
References
External links
