Ricardo Pietreczko narrowly missed another surprise at the European Darts Championship in Dortmund. The 30-year-old from Hanover lost the first major quarter-final of his career on Sunday afternoon after a thriller 9:10 against the Dutch world number 15. Danny Noppert. The Englishman Ritchie Edhouse secured the title with an 11:3 in the final of the blatant outsiders against Noppert’s compatriot Jermaine Wattimena.
In front of more than 5,000 fans in the Westfalenhalle, Noppert had slightly better nerves against the German in the end. Pietreczko, 33rd in the world rankings, started the match at 9:8, but was unable to take advantage of this opportunity. Noppert appeared to be much more confident about the triple in the decisive phase of the game.
Noppert then lost 10:11 in the semi-finals to Wattimena, who had to admit defeat against Edhouse in a duel between two final debutants. In the match of the 39 (Edhouse) and the 40 (Wattimena) in the world, the Englishman secured his first title on the PDC tour.
“A dream has come true”
In the rankings, Edhouse, who eliminated former world champions Michael Smith and Gary Anderson, among others, moved up to 29th place. His greatest success had previously been reaching the second round of the World Cup.
“It’s unbelievable. It’s a dream come true,” said 41-year-old Edhouse, who won 120,000 pounds (around 144,000 euros) in prize money.
Pietreczko reached the quarter-finals of a major tournament for the first time in his career after victories over Australian Damon Heta (6:5) and Luke-Littler-Bewzinger Andrew Gilding (10:3).
The top seeds Martin Schindler and Gabriel Clemens were already eliminated in round one. Numerous favorites such as Humphries, prodigy Luke Littler and former world champions Michael van Gerwen, Smith and Rob Cross were also eliminated early.
Source: www.sport.de
