| Devon Petersen | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Petersen in 2025 | |||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||
| Nickname | "The African Warrior" | ||||||||
| Born | (1986-06-04)4 June 1986 (age 39) Mitchells Plain,Cape Town, South Africa | ||||||||
| Home town | Bradford, England | ||||||||
| Darts information | |||||||||
| Playing darts since | 2004 | ||||||||
| Darts | 22g Shot Signature | ||||||||
| Laterality | Right-handed | ||||||||
| Walk-on music | "Waka Waka (This Time for Africa)" byShakira ft.Freshlyground | ||||||||
| Organisation (seesplit in darts) | |||||||||
| PDC | 2009– (Tour Card: 2011–2012, 2015–2023) | ||||||||
| WDF major events – best performances | |||||||||
| World Masters | Preliminary Round: 2010 | ||||||||
| PDC premier events – best performances | |||||||||
| World Championship | Last 16:2014,2019,2021 | ||||||||
| World Matchplay | Last 32:2021 | ||||||||
| World Grand Prix | Last 16:2020 | ||||||||
| UK Open | Quarter Final:2015,2021 | ||||||||
| Grand Slam | Last 16:2020 | ||||||||
| European Championship | Semi Final:2020 | ||||||||
| PC Finals | Last 64:2016,2019,2020,2021 | ||||||||
| Masters | Last 24:2022 | ||||||||
| World Series Finals | Last 24:2015,2022 | ||||||||
| Other tournament wins | |||||||||
European Tour Events
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Devon Petersen (born 4 June 1986) is a South African professionaldarts player who competes inProfessional Darts Corporation (PDC) events. He won his firstPDC European Tour title at the2020 German Darts Championship. He reached his first major semi-final at the2020 European Championship. Petersen won the first Amateur Darts Circuit (ADC) Global Championship in 2024.
His bestPDC World Championship performance is reaching the last 16 on three occasions.
He has also worked as a pundit forSky Sports.
He qualified for the2011 PDC World Darts Championship as the South African champion. He beatGuyana'sNorman Madhoo 4–3 in the preliminary round with big checkouts including a 136 and a 146. In beating Madhoo, he earned a place in the first round proper, where he would playJamie Caven. Despite winning the first set, Petersen lost by 3 sets to 1.[1]
He qualified for the 2011PDC Pro Tour as one of four semi-finalists from the second day of the Pro Tour's Q School.[2] Since turning professional, Petersen has left South Africa to live inBrighouse,West Yorkshire, and signed a sponsorship deal with leading darts manufacturer Unicorn.[3]
Petersen retained the South African Open in 2011 to qualify for the2012 PDC World Darts Championship,[4] where he edged outJosé Oliveira de Sousa 4–3 (legs) in the preliminary round to reach the last 64 for the second successive year. Petersen playedSteve Brown in the first round and recovered from 2–1 down in sets to win 3–2, also recovering from 2–0 down in legs in the deciding set and surviving one match dart. Petersen said after the win that it was a "dream come true" and that he was sure he had more in him.[5] He playedGary Anderson in the second round and played the best he has in front of the television cameras. However, the class of his opponent came through and he lost 4–2, with Anderson stating after the match that "Devon became very tough for me". Petersen himself said that he would "work hard and come back a better player".[6]
He represented South Africa withShawn Hogan in the2012 PDC World Cup of Darts and together they defeated Spain 5–2 in the first round before causing a shock by knocking out number 4 seeds Scotland in the second round in a sudden death leg. They played Wales in the quarter finals and were beaten in the deciding doubles match. Petersen prematurely celebrated as he thought he had taken his country to the semi-finals by hitting double 16. However, he had miscounted and they were out of the tournament moments later whenRichie Burnett secured the winning double.[7] Petersen reached the last 64 of the2012 UK Open by defeating Andrew Gilding 4–0, but then lost toRonnie Baxter 9–6.[8] In June, he qualified for theEuropean Tour Event 3 after defeatingDarren Webster and Gareth Cousins in the UK qualifier.[9] Petersen again lost to Baxter this time 6–2 in the first round inDüsseldorf.[10]
Petersen took a year away from darts in 2013 to recuperate from an arm injury.[11] In September he won the South African Masters by defeating Graham Filby 9–3 in the final and in doing so earned a place in his third World Championship for the2014 edition, where he saw offMohd Latif Sapup 4–1 in the preliminary round.[12] Petersen danced onto the stage for his first round match againstSteve Beaton which immediately got the crowd on his side as he defeated the 1996 BDO world champion 3–1 in sets.[13] Petersen was 2–1 ahead againstJustin Pipe in the next round and in the deciding leg of the fourth set he took out a crucial 130 finish with Pipe on 36, before wrapping up a 4–1 win.[14] In the third round his run came to an end when he lost 4–0 toJames Wade.[15] Petersen partnered Filby in theWorld Cup of Darts and they came past Germany 5–3 in the first round, before Petersen beatPaul Lim 4–0 in his singles match in the second round. Filby lost his to Harith Lim, meaning a doubles match was needed to settle the tie which South Africa edged 4–3.[16] In the quarter-finals they faced the number one seeds ofPhil Taylor andAdrian Lewis, with Petersen and Filby both losing their singles matches to exit the tournament.[17] Petersen was defeated in the final of the South African Qualifier for the2015 World Championship 9–5 by Nolan Arendse.[18]
In January 2015, Petersen played in Q School and earned a two-year tour card on the second day by defeating Chris Hartrey 5–1 in the final round.[19] Petersen did not base himself in Britain for 2015 and estimated he would make 20 trips back and forth from South Africa during the year.[20] He entered theUK Open in the second round stage and beat Mark Cox 5–4,Mark Barilli 9–8,Jamie Caven 9–6 and Eddie Dootson 9–3 to reach the quarter-finals of a major PDC event for the first time.[21][22] Petersen led world number oneMichael van Gerwen 3–2 at the first break but had had darts to win every leg and went on to lose 10–5.[23] He became the first South African to throw anine-dart finish on the PDC tour at the sixthPlayers Championship and went on to reach the quarter-finals where Van Gerwen whitewashed him 6–0.[24] At theWorld Cup, Petersen and Filby survived a match dart from Finland to win 5–4 before losing both of their singles matches against Van Gerwen andRaymond van Barneveld of the Netherlands in the second round.[25] Petersen was invited to participate in the firstWorld Series of Darts Finals, where he was eliminated 6–3 byRobert Thornton in the first round.[26]
Petersen saw offRicky Evans 6–5 andKim Huybrechts 6–2 at the2016 Dutch Darts Masters and then lost 6–2 toMervyn King in the third round.[27] He qualified for six other European Tour events and, even though he didn't reach the third round again, he had done enough to make his debut in theEuropean Championship, but was defeated 6–4 by King in the opening round.[28][29] Petersen and Graham Filby missed 14 darts at doubles as they were beaten 5–1 by Singapore in the first round of theWorld Cup.[30] Petersen lost in the first round of theEuropean Championship (6–4 toMervyn King) and thePlayers Championship Finals (6–3 toRobbie Green).[31][32]
Petersen struggled in the first round of the2017 World Championship as he could only average 79.29 in a 3–1 defeat toSteve Beaton.[33]
Petersen returned to form in the2019 World Championship reaching the Last 16 his best run since 2014 beatingWayne Jones,Ian White, andSteve West before narrowly losing toNathan Aspinall.
Again he qualified via the PDC World Africa Qualifying Event for the2020 World Championship. He playedLuke Humphries in the first round and lost 1–3. Petersen remained in the top 64 of the PDC Order of Merit and kept his tour card for 2020.[34]
On 22 February 2020, Petersen reached his first ever PDC semi-final, at Players Championship 5, beating high quality players such asStephen Bunting andRob Cross (the World Number Four at the time) along the way, before losing to eventual winnerPeter Wright 7–5.[35]
On 27 September 2020, Petersen won his first ranking title beating Johnny Clayton 8–3 at the German Darts Championship.[36] He followed this by a Second Round loss to Gerwyn Price in the 2020 European Darts Grand Prix, hence finished 4th with £27,000 on the European Tour order of merit, which cemented his place as a top seed in the 2020 PDc European Championship. In this tournament, Petersen eliminated Andy Hamilton, Martin Kleermaker and Ian White to reach his first major televised Semi Final, but lost narrowly 10–11 to James Wade. This run equaled a cheque of £32,000.
Further televised exposure followed in the 2020 PDC World Cup of Darts, where he was partnered byCarl Gabriel in a 5-1 First Round humiliation to Poland withKrzysztof Ratajski &Krzysztof Kciuk.
Despite some inconsistency in form at the 2020 PDC Winter Series, Petersen showed rejuvenation in the 2020 PDC Grand Slam of Darts, where he reached the Last 16 on his debut. In the course of doing so, he won all three of his group stage games against Ian White, Dirk van Duijvenbode and Peter Wright, topping the group and receiving the group winner's bonus of £3,500. Australian rising star Damon Heta proved too big of an obstacle and denied Petersen a place in his third major televised Quarter Final in a 10–7 victory over the South African.
Petersen entered the Top 32 in the world before the commencement of the 2020 PDC Players Championship Finals, but lost 3–6 to Luke Humphries, averaging 101.46 against Humphries' 99.65.
Petersen returned to the Alexandra Palace in London for the2021 PDC World Darts Championship and started as a seeded player in Round 2 (Last 64) for the first time in his career. He overcame Steve Lennon and Jason Lowe to reach the fourth round, where he lost 4–0 toGary Anderson.[37]
In 2023, Petersen once again represented South Africa on theWorld Cup of Darts, forming a team withVernon Bouwers. They made it to the second round, where they lost to the French team ofThibault Tricole andJacques Labre.
Petersen previously used darts given to him byPhil Taylor at the 2009South African Masters.[38]
PDC
| Tournament | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| World Championship | DNQ | 1R | 2R | DNQ | 3R | DNQ | 1R | 1R | 4R | 1R | 4R | 2R | DNQ | |||||||
| UK Open | DNP | 2R | 3R | DNQ | QF | DNQ | 2R | DNQ | 3R | 3R | QF | 5R | 3R | |||||||
| World Matchplay | Did not qualify | 1R | DNQ | |||||||||||||||||
| World Grand Prix | Did not qualify | 2R | Did not qualify | |||||||||||||||||
| European Championship | DNP | Did not qualify | 1R | Did not qualify | SF | Did not qualify | ||||||||||||||
| Grand Slam | Did not qualify | 2R | Did not qualify | |||||||||||||||||
| Players Championship Finals | DNP | Did not qualify | 1R | DNQ | 1R | 1R | 1R | DNQ | ||||||||||||
| Non-ranked televised events | ||||||||||||||||||||
| PDC Masters | NH | DNQ | 1R | DNQ | ||||||||||||||||
| PDC World Cup | DNP | NH | QF | DNP | QF | 2R | 1R | 2R | 2R | 2R | 1R | 2R | 1R | 2R | ||||||
| World Series Finals | Not held | 1R | Did not qualify | 1R | DNQ | |||||||||||||||
| Career statistics | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Year-end ranking | 95 | 61 | 63 | 62 | 77 | 60 | 50 | 51 | 60 | 60 | 29 | 26 | 58 | 110 | ||||||
PDC European Tour
| Season | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | DNQ | EDO 1R | DNQ | ||||||||||
| 2015 | GDC 1R | GDT 2R | DNQ | EDO 3R | DNP | EDG 1R | |||||||
| 2016 | DDM 3R | GDM 2R | GDT DNQ | EDM 1R | ADO DNQ | EDO 2R | IDO 2R | EDT 2R | EDG 1R | GDC DNQ | |||
| 2017 | Did not qualify | EDO 3R | Did not qualify | ||||||||||
| 2019 | Did not qualify | ADO 1R | Did not qualify | CDO 1R | Did not qualify | ||||||||
| 2020 | BDC DNQ | GDC W | EDG 2R | IDO DNQ | |||||||||
| 2021 | HDT 2R | GDT 2R | |||||||||||
| 2022 | IDO 2R | GDC 2R | GDG DNQ | ADO 1R | EDO 2R | Did not qualify | |||||||
PDC Players Championships
| Season | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | WIG 1R | WIG 3R | WIG 1R | WIG 1R | BAR 3R | BAR 1R | WIG 2R | WIG 1R | BAR 2R | BAR 1R | BAR 1R | BAR 1R | BAR 2R | BAR 1R | BAR 3R | BAR 2R | WIG 2R | WIG 1R | BAR 3R | BAR QF | HIL 2R | HIL 2R | BAR 1R | BAR 4R | BAR 1R | BAR 2R | DUB 1R | DUB 1R | BAR 4R | BAR 2R |
| 2020 | BAR 1R | BAR 1R | WIG 1R | WIG 1R | WIG SF | WIG 4R | BAR 2R | BAR 1R | MIL 2R | MIL 2R | MIL 3R | MIL 3R | MIL SF | NIE SF | NIE 2R | NIE 1R | NIE F | NIE 2R | COV 2R | COV 1R | COV 1R | COV 2R | COV 3R | |||||||
| 2021 | BOL 3R | BOL 1R | BOL 4R | BOL 3R | MIL 4R | MIL 3R | MIL 1R | MIL 2R | NIE 1R | NIE 1R | NIE 3R | NIE 1R | MIL 1R | MIL 1R | MIL 1R | MIL 1R | COV 2R | COV 3R | COV 2R | COV 2R | BAR 3R | BAR 1R | BAR 1R | BAR 1R | BAR 1R | BAR 2R | BAR 1R | BAR 1R | BAR 1R | BAR 1R |
| 2022 | BAR 1R | BAR 1R | WIG 1R | WIG 1R | BAR 1R | BAR 2R | NIE 1R | NIE 1R | BAR 2R | BAR 2R | BAR 2R | BAR 1R | BAR 2R | WIG 2R | WIG 1R | NIE 1R | NIE 1R | BAR 2R | BAR 2R | BAR 1R | BAR 2R | BAR 2R | BAR 1R | BAR 1R | BAR 1R | BAR 1R | BAR 1R | BAR 1R | BAR 3R | BAR 1R |
| Performance Table Legend | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| W | Won the tournament | F | Finalist | SF | Semifinalist | QF | Quarterfinalist | #R RR L# | Lost in # round Round-robin Last # stage | DQ | Disqualified |
| DNQ | Did not qualify | DNP | Did not participate | WD | Withdrew | NH | Tournament not held | NYF | Not yet founded | ||