The first act sounded anything but promising, at least for those who like the arrow throwing specialist Ricardo Pietreczko. Even before the man from Nuremberg took the stage late on Tuesday evening, a ten-second chorus of boos filled the hall of London’s Alexandra Palace. As soon as the 29-year-old’s name was heard, the room reverberated. Merciless. No mercy, as the English say. His opponent, Mikuru Suzuki from Japan, was previously cheered. And given Pietreczko’s spicy history, the question this Tuesday evening was: How will the man with the darts nickname “Pikachu” react this time?
He immediately gave the answer with an idea that could be described as no mercy. Spicy backstory? He literally dispatched the 41-year-old Suzuki in 3-0 sets, the balance of the legs, of which it takes three to win a set in darts, was ultimately 9-1 for the German, who was to say later that evening: “I can beat anyone, I’m here to win this tournament.”
The prologue of this play on stage and ultimately behind the scenes is a play in itself and must be curated again here. It started five weeks ago in the north-west of the island: at the “Grand Slam of Darts”, one of the most important tournaments in arrowhead sport, Pietreczko competed against a professional darts player for the first time in Wolverhampton. There he met the Englishwoman Beau Greaves, the best woman in her field in the world. The audience in Wolverhampton whistled and booed the man on stage (who is not English) – no mercy – and Pietreczko reacted by clearly signaling his disapproval to the audience in angry gestures and facial expressions. He lost the game, was eliminated from the tournament and was furious with the Wolverhampton crowd. In his final victorious but meaningless match against Nathan Aspinall he made this clear again. All in front of TV cameras.
The truth is that Pietreczko has only recently joined the theater of the best. He would hardly claim to be a media professional. He reacts more from his gut. At a tournament in Germany, when his opponent was again being booed, he asked without being asked on the TV microphone to refrain from insults and to concentrate on applause. Well, some people don’t give a damn about cheering.
The influence of the audience in darts is massive – and allowed. It’s not like in tennis, where shouting or whistling in between is completely frowned upon. In darts there are sometimes warnings and rarely sanctions, but it does happen.
For example, throwing things onto the stage is not allowed. That’s why on Tuesday evening during Pietreczko’s game against Suzuki, a steward plucked the rubber pacifier out of the mouth of a fan dressed as a baby. Reason from the top, according to the folder: pacifiers are potential projectiles. Not everything is completely logical in this crazy palace, but does it have to be?
Potential projectile: Pacifiers are also undesirable in Alexandra Palace as part of the disguise, the steward has secured the evidence.
(Photo: Korbinian Eisenberger / OH)
And while the fan before who begged in vain for his rubber pacifier on the stage on There was a déjà vu on the stage: a chorus of boos against Pietreczko, which drowned out almost everything, at least in the back part of the main hall. With effect? No “Pikachu! Pikachu!” chants, like in mid-October, as the Nuremberg native was the first German to win a tournament on the prominent European Tour since Max Hopp in 2018. Since then, “Pikachu” is no longer just a character in the Japanese anime series Pokemon – but the Darts talent from Germany.
So it was the double irony of this encounter with Suzuki: once again a woman, now also from the country of origin of the animated Pikachu. And that’s how it happened.
Even before the first arrow was thrown, a barely noticeable, but perhaps THE scene of the evening occurred: the boos against the German had just died down, the English version of the Pokemon anthem could be clearly heard: Then Pietreczko came onto the stage and bowed smiling in front of his opponent, in the polite Japanese manner. Suzuki seemed happily surprised before she returned his greeting with a bow, no less smiling. Pietreczko then bowed to the now, well, pretty full stands (it was already late). As soon as the game began, the insults against him died down; from then on, almost exclusively his fans spoke up in the Ally Pally. It sounded: “Pikachu! Pikachu!”
“It was very nice on stage, I expected more resistance from the audience,” he explained at a press conference on Tuesday evening. “But that wasn’t the case at all.” And that was probably mainly due to himself: from the first throw (directly into the popular Triple 20 field), Pietreczko dominated. He left lasting evidence that his accuracy on the double fields is remarkable. His double balance on Tuesday evening: 50 percent in two respects, it now also applies in duels with female professionals.
In round two, Pietreczko will face a male competitor from England, Callan Rydz, against whom he has won once in three defeats. Pietreczko explained that such statistics do not have much meaning for him. So no thanks, politely for: no mercy.