De Decker glad to be part of spate of top Belgian darters: "Attention on Belgian darts has never been greater"

After some impressive finishing helped Mike De Decker defeat Jeff Smith and book his spot in the 2nd round of the PDC World Darts Championship for the second consecutive year, the Belgian revealed his pride at representing his nation on the biggest stage.

With compatriots Kim Huybrechts and Dimitri van den Bergh both safely through to the third round and De Decker himself now victorious, the attention being given to the sport of darts is growing in Belgium. "The attention in Belgium for the last two or three years has been massive."

With added attention comes added pressure however, especially for someone who is still relatively inexperienced on the big stage such as De Decker. "I've been doing really well the last couple of months and it's been going 'Mike is the best Belgian' at the moment. I tried to block it out but at some point in that game I started thinking about it," he says. "It was a rollercoaster of emotions."

In round 2 De Decker will be facing up against the 30th seed, Mensur Suljovic. With the Austrian struggling for form recently, many back home in Belgium will see this as a good opportunity for De Decker to progress, he's not getting too carried away however, "If it clicks with Mensur he is a very dangerous player," he says. "I'm just going to hope to hope I play a bit better than this and we'll see."