Ricardo Pietreczko fails against Luke Littler. After the match, the world champion talks about provocations from the German and seems surprised.
In terms of sport, darts star Ricardo Pietreczko delivered a close fight for a long time in the 6:10 defeat against Luke Littler at the Players Championship Finals – but perplexed the world champion with a psychological tactic that was incomprehensible to him.
Littler revealed after the game that “Pikachu” had tried to get into his head: “When I equalized to 5:5, he came to me and said: I actually only wanted to win one leg and now I’ve even won five.”
Luke Littler shows incomprehension for the behavior of Ricardo Pietreczko
The number 1 in the world rankings had previously fought back from a 1:3 and 3:5 deficit and was therefore irritated by the German’s tactics at the PK after the game: “I just said to myself: Why is he saying something like that at this moment?”
“After that I said to myself: You’re going to feel that now. I’m definitely going to win this game and that’s what happened,” said Littler.
Littler strikes back with “Show and boasting”
Littler won three more legs in a row and only gave up one leg until the end of the match. In addition, Littler showed his whole class in the 13th leg and annoyed Pietreczko with an unconventional checkout. He checked 121 points via Bullseye, Triple-7 and Bullseye to make it 8:5 in the meantime.
“That’s also why I started with the show and the boasting,” Littler admitted bluntly that “Pikachu” had motivated him extra.
Littler and Pietreczko are not publicly in conflict with each other for the first time: In March 2024, Pietreczko was still bothered by the unusual check-out routes in a defeat against Littler (3:7). Littler also tried to sting back against “Pikachu” with his style of play. This time the German took note of it with a smile.
Provocations? “Then I’ll throw one 180 after another and boast”
When a reporter then asked the world champion why he believed that his opponent would start such a “strange” attempt, Littler tried to find an explanation: “He tried to get into my head.”
But such attempts would not unsettle him. On the contrary: “Especially when someone tries to get into my head, I just do what I do. Then I’ll throw one 180 after another and boast.”
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