Undisputed King of Eastern European darts, Krzysztof Ratajski claimed his third career continental title, defeating Jermaine Wattimena 8-6 in the final to be crowned the 2026 European Darts Open Champion.
The Polish Eagle was flying as high as his proverbial moniker suggested over Leverkusen once again, going all the way, which is about as difficult as trying to explain to fans at the Ally Pally that the famous Ivorian Touré brothers are, in fact, footballers, not darts players.
Ratajski began Sunday afternoon with arguably the toughest assignment of them all, trying to knock over top seed Gian van Veen, who swats away dartitis and kidney stones like they are wasps hovering around a can of Orange Tango.
However, defeat him he did. On marched the high-scoring, Scrabble-named Krzysztof Ratajski into the evening session like a Wild West gunslinger out for a casual morning stroll to pick up his newspaper. Chilled and completely unperturbed by anything around him. And that included likely assassinations.
The Pole then took out the reigning tournament champion, Nathan Aspinall, who looks nothing like a bloke getting fed up with darts. Once again, the Mancunian showed he also treats dartitis with contempt – almost as if to say, “Don’t try that on with me, sunshine.”
To reach the showdown, we had a Pole-Off, which, despite sounding like a cross between medieval jousting and an Olympic track and field event, was, in reality, the first-ever all-Polish Euro Tour semi-final. World Cup skipper Ratajski just got the better of his compatriot, Sebastian Bialecki. In The Bolt’s own words lately, his time will come. Personally, I think it’s going to be soon.
Facing Ratajski in the final was Jermaine Wattimena. Having smashed past a poor version of Kim Huybrechts on Saturday, The Machine Gun reached the quarter-finals with another emphatic win over Ryan Joyce, who, like the Belgian, was miles off the pace.
The Dutchman then edged Luke Woodhouse in a thriller to book a spot in his first-ever Euro Tour semi-final. Cue the tears of relief and happiness. If he’d gone on to win the thing, he’d probably have needed a box of Kleenex. But personal, and somewhat disconcerting, experience means I know he keeps a few packs close to his hotel bed when away on tour watching, let’s just be generous and say, “Asian TV.”
Anyway, The Machine Gun then eased past Damon Heta, who, prior to that, had been scoring heavily. That put Jermaine into his maiden final and, so far, no one had averaged over 90 against him. Not his fault. Sometimes the penny just lands on your side.
For the final, you couldn’t have had two more contrasting characters. The calm, emotionally unflappable Krzysztof Ratajski looked like he was standing in a Costa Coffee queue, quietly waiting for his cappuccino. Then there was Jermaine Wattimena, who came bouncing onto the stage like some techno-obsessed nutcase. Still, horses for courses.
The contest itself was fairly dramatic – although it didn’t look that way at the start. It was the Pole who burst out of the blocks, and at 4-1 up, he was playing well while Wattimena had yet to click into gear. Suddenly, buoyed by the Leverkusen crowd, who were clearly in his corner, the Dutchman produced a four-leg burst to leapfrog Ratajski. Not literally, of course. That would have ended in either broken limbs or a hernia.
From that point on, the contest was finely balanced and, before long, we were level at 6-6. Effectively, best of three.
Clearly, for Wattimena, who was yet to bag one of these bad boys, there may well have been a touch of nerves. Understandable. But when it came to the crunch, that might have been the decisive factor because, on both the scoreboard and the stats, there was barely anything between them.
When the Polish Eagle held throw to move within one leg of the title, the pressure was on Jermaine to hold and take it all the way. And that’s perhaps when those nerves really kicked in. Chances to equalise went awry, and Ratajski swooped down and gobbled them up.
If you want to head into the World Matchplay on a high, then picking up a significant stage win just before trekking to Blackpool is the perfect tonic.
Congratulations to Ratajski. The Daddy of Polish Darts.
Round Three
Jermaine Wattimena 6-1 Ryan Joyce
Luke Woodhouse 6-5 Jonny Clayton
Dirk van Duijvenbode 6-3 Wessel Nijman
Damon Heta 6-4 Michael van Gerwen
Sebastian Bialecki 6-4 Kevin Doets
James Wade 6-2 Jan Schmidt
Nathan Aspinall 6-4 Ross Smith
Krzysztof Ratajski 6-3 Gian van Veen
Quarter-Finals
Jermaine Wattimena 6-5 Luke Woodhouse
Damon Heta 6-2 Dirk van Duijvenbode
Sebastian Bialecki 6-2 James Wade
Krzysztof Ratajski 6-4 Nathan Aspinall
Semi-Finals
Jermaine Wattimena 7-3 Damon Heta
Krzysztof Ratajski 7-5 Sebastian Bialecki
Final
Krzysztof Ratajski 8-6 Jermaine Wattimena
