Luke Littler rival hopes 'arrogant' teenager gets 'punished' after fiery confrontation
Ricardo Pietreczko fumed at Luke Littler after their fiery Belgian Darts Open clash.
Ricardo Pietreczko blasted Luke Littler's "arrogance" in their Belgian Darts Open semi-final on Sunday and called for the teenager to be punished for his antics. The German star squared up to his opponent once Littler had defeated him to reach the final.
Pietreczko, 30, appeared to be frustrated at Littler for attempting an unorthodox finish in the sixth leg of their semi. Littler led 3-2 and was faced with the prospect of checking out on 147. He opted to go via triple 19, double 20 and bullseye, but threw his second arrow off the board.
Littler lost the leg, but took the next four to set up a final with Rob Cross, before his celebrations were met by a furious rival 13 years his senior. Pietreczko got in Littler's face as they tensely shook hands before exiting the stage.
Pietreczko then took to social media after leaving the venue and despite praising Littler's ability to play senior darts at such a high level for his age, described the 17-year-old as arrogant and hoped that it would end up punishing him.
"So I appreciated him a lot that you can play such a game at such an age," Pietreczko reacted on his Instagram story. "But I hope the arrogance punishes him."
Litter similarly took to social media in the aftermath of their incident, as he explained what was said in their confrontation to the best of his abilities. “No idea what I did wrong, no idea what he said," he wrote on Facebook. "He said something then don’t do it again.”
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This was not Littler's first incident of the day, after being frustrated with his second-round opponent Krzysztof Ratajski for "trying to get to me".
Littler called out Ratajski for attempting to distract him by taking a sip of the teen's water bottle during their contest. He shook his head and then put the bottle on the floor, perplexed by such antics.
“I saw him drink a bit of my water," Littler explained. "I saw him do it again so I just put it on the floor. Trying to get to me. If he is then fair enough, I'm just glad to get the win.”