“I'm not going to speak out because then he'll be fired up, and I don't want him to be fired up” – Mike De Decker wants to keep Luke Littler in check ahead of clash
PDCSaturday, 21 February 2026 at 15:00
Mike De Decker booked his place in the second round of the Poland Darts Open in Krakow on Friday evening, though it was far from convincing. With a modest 84 average, the Belgian was a 6-4 winner over Euro Tour debutant Marvin Kraft.
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The match started sluggishly. De Decker needed 20 darts to hold his opening leg, but immediately set the tone with a strong 12-darter to break the German. He could not capitalise for long, though. Kraft hit straight back with a 78 checkout and broke back at once for 2-1.
De Decker recovered quickly and struck again on his opponent’s throw. This time he did hold his own leg, stretching the lead to 4-1 and seemingly taking control.
Kraft, however, kept hanging in. A tidy 14-darter cut the deficit to 4-2, but De Decker then reached match point in 20 darts and looked on course for a relatively comfortable win. It didn’t play out that way. The German battled back with two consecutive legs to trail 5-4 and kept the tension alive.
De Decker allowed no further twist. A 16-darter ended Kraft’s resistance and sealed his spot in round two. His level will need to rise in the next round, as a meeting with two-time world champion Luke Littler awaits.
Even so, the Mechelen thrower will take heart from having pushed Littler recently. At the Winmau World Masters, De Decker even missed a match dart at double 11 to knock Littler out of the tournament.
“I’m never gonna put myself on double 11 again,” De Decker joked to Tungsten Tales. “No, it was a good game. If you get a match dart against the world number one and the player whose been dominating the sport for the past two years, you're doing a good job,” De Decker reflected.
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"Hopefully I do that again, but we'll worry about that tomorrow (Saturday),” continued the former World Grand Prix champion. “I'm not going to speak out because then he'll be fired up, and I don't want him to be fired up. We’ll see.”
Lucas MichaelDarts Journalist
Lucas Michael is a darts journalist and reporter based in Cambridge, UK, and has been part of the DartsNews team since 2025. He covers professional darts through reports, analysis, round-ups, and live coverage, with a focus on clear context and accurate reporting across the PDC calendar.
A key part of his work is liveblogging major tournaments throughout the year, providing real-time updates, match coverage, and contextual reporting across the professional circuit. He also reports regularly from events on site and has covered the PDC World Darts Championship from the venue, delivering first-hand insight throughout the tournament.
Within the newsroom, Lucas works closely with the editorial team and supports coverage alongside Chief Content Officer Samuel Gill and reporter Kieran Wood.
Lucas holds a BA (Hons) in Sports Journalism. In his work, he places strong emphasis on careful sourcing, editorial accuracy, and updating content promptly when new, verified information becomes available.
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- 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
- 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
- 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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