(INTERVIEW) Rusty-Jake Rodriguez tasked with saving Austrian honour at World Darts Championship despite wrist injury

It seemed that Austria would have to do without participants at this year's World Darts Championship, but through the final qualifying tournament Rusty-Jake Rodriguez managed to force placement after all.

At that qualifying tournament, Rodriguez won against, among others, compatriot Mensur Suljovic, who is therefore missing from Alexandra Palace for the first time since the 2013 edition. And that takes getting used to for Austrian fans, including Rodriguez himself.

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"Of course it's strange. I trained with Mensur two years ago, the last time I played there, leading up to the World Darts Championship. Unfortunately I ran into him during the qualifying tournament, there's nothing I can do about that. My goal was to perform there and fortunately I did,'' Rodriguez said in an interview with Dartsnews.de.

With qualification for the Alexandra Palace, Rodriguez grabbed his last straw and still has a chance of retaining his PDC Tour Card. It will certainly not be an easy task. He will have to reach at least the quarter-finals in London. ''Of course it's possible,'' the 22-year-old darter said of this assignment. ''But I look at it round by round. If I play well enough, I can beat people. But if not, I'll just go to Q-School next year."

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In the first round of the World Darts Championship, Rodriguez faces Cameron Menzies. ''It could be better, it could be worse,'' Rodriguez judges this draw. ''It's a very good opponent. I don't know how many times we've played each other in the last two years, but the last time I played against him I narrowly won 6-5. We'll see. Anything is possible on the stage and the best one will win."

Should Rodriguez win over Menzies, Dave Chisnall awaits in the second round. ''That's a top player, but he hasn't performed well at the big television tournaments this year. But I have to win the first round first. I'm not thinking that far ahead yet. I'm looking at it round by round. Anything can happen on stage, especially at the World Darts Championship. I'll just prepare as well as I can and then I'll see how it goes.''

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One of the ways Rodriguez prepares is by ramping up his training program. He spends four hours on the practice board almost every day. "You have to train more for a tournament like the World Darts Championship. It's the biggest stage in the world and you have to perform well there."

However, the Austrian must hope he can sustain this workload, as he has problems with the wrist of his pitching arm. But Rodriguez has already taken this into account in his schedule. "When I play there (at Alexandra Palace, ed.) I take several breaks. I'm going to ask some people who have similar pain and how they're doing, even though it's not in their wrist."

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In any case, the schedule of play took little account of Rodriguez's injury. He will play on the opening day of the World Darts Championship, and in the event of a win over Menzies, he will play Dave Chisnall the very next day.

With this outcome, "RJR #3" is not very happy. "I don't like playing two days in a row. I would have preferred two or three days off in between so I can recover and let my wrist heal. But that's the way it is, I can't change that. I'll do my best,'' Rodriguez concluded.

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