Zoran Lerchbacher (born 30 May 1972) is an Austrian professional darts player from Graz, who competes in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events.
Career
Lerchbacher qualified for the 2014 PDC World Darts Championship and won 4–1 in the preliminary round against Ben Ward. He then went out in a 3–0 loss to Michael van Gerwen. Lerchbacher was able to score a slightly higher average than Van Gerwen, but was only able to win one leg in the match. He entered Q School to try and win a tour card to compete on the PDC tour and lost in the final round of the fourth day 5–1 to Joe Murnan. Nevertheless, Lerchbacher had done enough to finish tied second on the Q School Order of Merit to seal his place on the PDC for 2014 and 2015. He had a disappointing first year on tour as his deepest runs were three last 64 defeats.
In 2015 Lerchbacher, attempted to qualify for six European Tour events and was successful at the final attempt in the European Darts Matchplay, but lost 6–1 to Darren Johnson. After his tour card expired Lerchbacher again entered Q School, but one last 32 exit over the four days was not enough to stay on tour.
Lerchbacher qualified for three European Tour events in 2016, losing 6–5 from 3–0 up in the first round of the Dutch Darts Masters to James Richardson. At the Austrian Darts Open he beat Jeffrey de Zwaan 6–4, before being whitewashed 6–0 in the second round by Jelle Klaasen. Lerchbacher advanced to the same stage of the European Darts Trophy by seeing off Joe Murnan 6–2 and lost 6–5 to Terry Jenkins.
A 10–1 thrashing of Dietmar Burger in the final of the East European Qualifier saw Lerchbacher play in the 2017 World Championship. He saw off Simon Stevenson 2–1 in the preliminary round and then lost 3–0 to Robert Thornton in the first round.
His best professional run came at the 16th Players Championship on the 2017 PDC Pro Tour: Six (four of them 6–5) wins en route saw him reaching his first PDC final. Players Lerchbacher beat included Mark Webster, Robert Thornton and Steve Beaton, before he fell to Joe Cullen 6–4 in the final.
At the 2018 World Championship he reached the second round after beating Mervyn King 3–2 in sets.
Lerchbacher fell off the Pro Tour at the end of 2019, and after a year without a Tour Card in 2020, he was successful at European Q School in February 2021 to turn professional again.
World Championship results
PDC
2014: First round (lost to Michael van Gerwen 0–3) 2017: First round (lost to Robert Thornton 0–3) 2018: Second round (lost to Keegan Brown 2–4) 2020: Second round (lost to Krzysztof Ratajski 1–3)
Performance timeline BDO Tournament 2009 World Masters2R
PDC Tournament 2014 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022PDC Ranked televised events World Championship 1R 1R 2RDNQ 2RDNQ UK OpenDNP 2RWD 3RDNP 1R 3R DNQ 1RDNQDNPDNQPDC Non-ranked televised events World CupDNP1RQFDNPCareer statisticsYear-end ranking126616176-89133
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 2017BAR3RBAR4RBAR1RBAR2RMIL1RMIL2RBAR3RBAR1RWIG1RWIG1RMIL3RMIL3RWIG1RWIG1RBAR2RBARFBAR2RBAR2RDUB1RDUB1RBAR3RBAR1R 2018BAR1RBAR1RBAR2RBAR2RMIL1RMIL1RBAR2RBAR3RWIG2RWIG1RMIL2RMIL2RWIG1RWIG3RBAR1RBAR3RBARDNPBAR1RDUB1RDUB2RBAR2RBAR2R 2019WIG1RWIG3RWIG4RWIG1RBAR1RBAR2RWIG1RWIG2RBAR1RBAR2RBAR2RBAR2RBAR1RBAR1RBAR1RBAR3RWIG1RWIG1RBAR1RBAR1RHIL1RHIL1RBAR1RBAR2RBAR1RBAR1RDUB1RDUB2RBAR1RBAR3R 2021BOL1RBOL2RBOL1RBOL1RMIL2RMIL1RMIL2RMIL2RNIE1RNIE3RNIE1RNIE2RMILDNPCOV1RCOV3RCOV3RCOV1RBAR1RBAR1RBAR2RBARDNP 2022Did not participateNIE1RNIE1RBAR1RBAR1RBAR1RDid not participateNIE2RNIE1RDid not participate
References
External links
Profile on Dartn.de