"This could be life-changing" - First PDC title fuels Radek Szaganski's self-belief and gives hope of retaining Tour Card
PDCSaturday, 21 October 2023 at 11:00
Radek Szaganski achieved the greatest result of his darts career on Friday by taking the overall victory at Players Championship 27. After a surprising final, he defeated Connor Scutt 8-5.
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It undoubtedly has to be one of the most remarkable PDC finals ever; between world ranking numbers 84 (Szaganski) and 77 (Connor Scutt). Both managed to eliminate a number of top players on their way to the final.
Szaganski consecutively defeated Jacques Labre (6-5), Dimitri van den Bergh (6-2), Jonny Clayton (6-4), Ryan Joyce (6-4), Maik Kuivenhoven (6-1) and Ricardo Pietreczko (7-3) on his way to the final, in which Scutt was thus also defeated.
“To be the best player in that room today, it means a lot,” Szaganski responded afterwards. ''When I won my Tour Card [in 2022], I thought I might get one good run, but I never expected to win a title."
Incidentally, Szaganski should not have made it past the first round, the Pole himself acknowledged. “To be honest, I shouldn’t be here because in my first game against Jacques, he missed four darts for the match, but this is darts. Sometimes you need luck, and that is what happened to me today."
He has now secured the right to be in action at the Players Championship Finals and the World Darts Championship later this year. ''This means a lot. There are no words to explain how I feel right now, but I am really happy. This could be life-changing.”
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Kieran WoodDarts Journalist
Kieran Wood is a sports journalist based in Wales and has been active in journalism since 2022. He contributes to DartsNews.com, where he covers professional darts through news, match reports, analysis, and live coverage across the PDC calendar and major tournaments.
A key part of his work is on-site reporting from leading events. Kieran has covered the PDC World Darts Championship in person, reporting daily from the venue and providing first-hand insight from the tournament. During his coverage, he has conducted interviews with leading players including Luke Littler, Luke Humphries, and Gerwyn Price.
He is also one of the leading voices of the English-language Dartsnews Podcast, contributing regular analysis and discussion on developments across the professional darts circuit.
In his reporting, Kieran places strong emphasis on careful sourcing, editorial accuracy, and updating articles when new, verified information becomes available.
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- Need to see her take part in the womens tour. She'll break the inernet.medinabello08-09-2026
- If he can be bothered? He won't play darts in Germany yet he'll go over and get an award!??rick6702-09-2026
- Why is this the main story? He chose not to compete in loads of tournaments,yes he's number 1 in the world,but he does have to turn up at tournaments! Play the next world championship in Dortmund and see if he turns up!!rick6727-08-2026
- This is exactly what I mean,littler survives the 1st round,I think you'll find a lot of other players did. Can you just report on the real sport,and not just 1 person. I like Luke,but this is getting boring now,as Kevin painter once said to Taylor!! The sport is about every player,not 1 who everyone seems to have put the sport on the map.,which he hasn't,he's just got in when the money is massive. Great as he is,it seems like what's the point in anyone trying,he's going to win everything,unless it's in Germany or Australia!!!rick6726-08-2026
- I mean look, Littler's picture is first,wattimena is second and he won! Level it up. I know littler is fantastic,but the sport was here before him,and will be when he's retired. Any player in the top 64/128 can beat each other,it's not big news. Poor Jermaine,wins it,and not even the headline!!rick6726-08-2026
- I appreciate that littler is a fantastic player,but the top 3 articles are about him. Before he'd thrown a dart in the tournament. Level it out a bit, Taylor and van gerwen soon got disliked as the media could only see them,and nobody else seemed to matterrick6725-08-2026
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- The two-point Lucky Loser qualifiers are Ross Smith, Robb, Whitlock, Sakai, Ilagan and Toylo. Jermaine is not on the entries list on Dartconnect for the TCH qualifier so the four from the main OoM are probably Searle, Nijman, Dobey, Wattimena.Scoobedybop24-08-2026
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