"Last year wasn’t good enough and now I only managed to win one match": De Decker’s early Belgian Darts Open exit has serious consequences for the rest of his European Tour season

It was a successful weekend for the Belgians at the Belgian Darts Open last weekend. With Kim Huybrechts reaching the last 16 and Andy Baetens even making the quarterfinals, there was plenty for the home crowd in Wieze to cheer about. For Mike De Decker, however, the weekend was far less smooth, as he went out immediately in the first round.

And that was a heavy blow for the ‘Real Deal’, who reached the final here last year. De Decker faced the man in form, Niels Zonneveld, who would go on to reach the semifinals. Yet De Decker could have stopped him early, as the Belgian led 5-3 in his match against the Dutchman. But he eventually lost 6-5, suffering a painful early exit in front of his home crowd.

Despite the disappointment, De Decker spoke to the Belgian press after the match. The defeat hurt, but he stressed he is in a process to perform better and more consistently again. “Yeah, it’s sh*t, isn’t it,” he began in conversation with Het Nieuwsblad. “You’re 5-3 up, you’ve got the match in hand and then you still give it away. Yeah, stupid. I didn’t even get a match dart. I land on 32 twice, but both times a visit too late. Otherwise I do get a chance. Especially that leg at 5-4, I start with 180, but then 57 and 44… Yeah, that shouldn’t happen. Man, man, man. If I just throw 100 twice there, I close out the match. Yeah, sh*t. Maybe Wieze just came a couple of weeks too early, but fine.”

“You can’t expect to be back at the 2024 level in one, two, three,” he continued. “I’m practicing quite a lot and I’ve also sought professional help. So hopefully it’ll come good soon and we’ll get that level back quickly. I know this is part of it, that it’s a process. It’s not nice to lose here, in your own country. But if I had lost like this in Munich in two weeks, it would have been stupid too. I’m not happy, of course not, but I’m not going to mope now. I’ve had those periods and I’m focusing on my hard work, then it will come.”

To make matters worse, this early defeat meant De Decker missed out by £250 on direct qualification for the European Tour events in Sindelfingen and Graz. As a result, at the start of April he will have to play the European Tour qualifiers again for the first time in a long while to secure a spot. Only 10 places are available there, so it will not be easy for the Belgian.

“I’m not really looking forward to that. But it’s part of it. Last year wasn’t good enough and now I only managed to win one match, so. Then you don’t deserve it. Maybe those qualifiers can give me a boost,” De Decker concluded.