Krzysztof Ratajski

****Krzysztof Ratajski**** (born 1 January 1977) is a Polish professional steel-tip and soft-tip darts player who currently plays in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events. His biggest achievement to date was winning the 2017 World Masters. He is the most successful darts player to come from Poland and make numerous start in PDC World Cup of Darts. Together with Krzysztof Kciuk, he is the world record holder in pairs match average.

## Career

### British Darts Organisation

Ratajski's first major steel-tip run came in the Czech Open in 2007, where he reached the semi-finals. He gained notable wins over Joey ten Berge and local player Marek Polak, eventually losing to Patrick Loos, who later won the tournament. He then went in 2008 on to win the Denmark Open. He defeated Nándor Bezzeg, Marko Kantele and Geert De Vos en route to the final, where he beat Fabian Roosenbrand.

Krzysztof qualified for the 2009 BDO World Darts Championship during to qualification competition, earning one of five available spots, becoming the first polish player to qualify for World Darts Championship. The next day after qualification, Ratajski took part in the 2008 World Masters, but lost in the very first round to Stig Jorgensen. Ratajski then lost in the first round of the 2009 BDO World Darts Championship to Edwin Max by 2–3 in sets.

He is represented Poland in the inaugural 2010 PDC World Cup of Darts together with Krzysztof Kciuk. They lost 2–6 in the first round to New Zealand, who were represented by Phillip Hazel and Warren Parry. He did not feature in the tournament again until 2013, once more with Kciuk, and they progressed to the second round by finishing second in group-stage, thanks to beating Gibraltar team (Dylan Duo and Dyson Parody) by 5–2 in legs. They played the host nation Germany, who were represented by Jyhan Artut and Andree Welge, and were defeated 2–5 in legs.

In 2015, he lost to Scott Waites in the semi-finals of the Polish Open. Ratajski made his PDC European Tour debut during the 2015 European Darts Trophy, but was edged out by Adam Hunt in the first round match, by 5–6 in legs. In the same year, he attended to 2015 World Masters and advanced to sixth round by beating Martin Atkins, Derek Hanley, Matthew Medhurst, Barry Copeland and Ross Montgomery at his road to the television phase. He finished the competition with a match against Martin Adams, which he lost by 2–3 in sets.

Ratajski played in the 2016 BDO World Trophy for the first time as a Eastern Europe Qualifier and lost to Scott Waites by 4–6 in legs. He teamed up with Mariusz Paul during the 2016 PDC World Cup of Darts and they were defeated by Belgium team (Kim Huybrechts and Ronny Huybrechts) in the opening first round. He qualified for the 2016 International Darts Open and was eliminated by Chris Dobey in the first round match.

He was qualified for the 2017 BDO World Darts Championship. He earned his first two wins at the event, including a 3–0 in sets victory over Wesley Harms, before narrowly losing to Darius Labanauskas in the second round match. At the 2017 PDC World Cup of Darts, Ratajski and Tytus Kanik lost by 3–5 in legs in the first round to the Irish team of Mick McGowan and William O'Connor.

At the 2017 World Masters, Ratajski was unseeded and had to start from the first round. He defeated two-time reigning champion Glen Durrant in the quarter-finals, Cameron Menzies in the semi-finals, and BDO world number one Mark McGeeney 6–1 in the final for his first televised major title. In doing so, Ratajski also guaranteed qualification for the 2018 BDO World Darts Championship, but declined his invitation in favour of an attempt to qualify for the rival 2018 PDC World Darts Championship. He qualified for the latter as the top ranked Eastern European on the PDC Pro Tour.

### Professional Darts Corporation

Ratajski competed in his first Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) premier event as a singles player at the 2017 European Championship. He lost 3–6 to Peter Wright in the first round. In the 2018 PDC World Darts Championship Ratajski lost 1–3 to James Wilson despite winning the first set. In February 2018, Ratajski became the first polish player to win a Professional Darts Corporation event, when he beat Daryl Gurney by 6–4 in the final of the 2018 UK Open Qualifiers. Due to his failure at PDC Q-School in January, he had to play on the PDC Challenge Tour, which he won one event in and made another final. Due to these successes, he was able to play some PDC Players Championships towards the end of 2018.

Ratajski won his second Professional Darts Corporation title on 20 October 2018, defeating Chris Dobey 6–2 in the final of Players Championship 21, despite not having a tour card. Ratajski also won Players Championship 22 the following day, joining an elite club of only 8 PDC players to win two Players Championship titles in a single weekend by beating Adrian Lewis 6–4. His weekend “double header” win secured his place at the 2019 PDC World Darts Championship, where he lost to Seigo Asada, the 2018 Players Championship Finals, where he beat Gerwyn Price and Adrian Lewis before losing to Danny Noppert, and the 2018 Grand Slam of Darts, where he beat Raymond van Barneveld and Adam Smith-Neale and losing to Michael Smith, playing in Group B, (that meant that he went through to the Last 16 stage) and lost to Jonny Clayton, as well as his tour card for 2019.

Ratajski received a qualifier for the 2023 PDC World Cup of Darts and for the fifth-time he represented Poland together with Krzysztof Kciuk. On the first day of the tournament, the Poles defeated the Portuguese team (Jose de Sousa and Luis Ameixa) with some difficulty by 4–3 in legs. In the second match of the group stage, the Poles faced the Lithuanian national team (Darius Labanauskas and Mindaugas Barauskas). After a great match, the Poles defeated their rivals by 4–1 in legs, achieving the world record match average (118.10) of doubles matches.

## World Championship results

### BDO

* 2009: First round (lost to Edwin Max 2–3)
* 2017: Second round (lost to Darius Labanauskas 3–4)

### PDC

* 2018: First round (lost to James Wilson 1–3)
* 2019: First round (lost to Seigo Asada 2–3)
* 2020: Third round (lost to Nathan Aspinall 3–4)
* 2021: Quarter-finals (lost to Stephen Bunting 3–5)
* 2022: Second round (lost to Steve Lennon 1–3)
* 2023: Third round (lost to Dimitri Van den Bergh 1–4)

## External links

* Krzysztof Ratajski at PDC.tv

Template:World Masters winners

1. ↑ Betfair World Cup of Darts - Last 16. PDC.
2. ↑ 2015 Polish Open Results. Darts Database.
3. ↑ European Darts Trophy Day One. PDC.
4. ↑ 2015 World Masters Results. Darts Database.
5. ↑ 2016 BDO World Trophy Results. Darts Database.
6. ↑ 2016 PDC World Cup of Darts Results. Darts Database.
7. ↑ HappyBet International Darts Open Day One. PDC.
8. ↑ 2017 PDC World Cup of Darts Results. Darts Database.
9. ↑ Gary Robson Invite to Lakeside World Pro 2018. BDO.
10. ↑ International Qualifiers Confirmed. PDC.
11. ↑ UK Open Qualifier 6. PDC.
12. ↑ Poland pair Ratajski and Kciuk survive double woes as moustache maestro Dante stars for Italy to begin World Cup of Darts. dartsnews.com.
13. ↑ Poland produce record pairs average at World Cup of Darts with sensational 118.1. dartsnews.com.