"My year has been brilliant. It's a bummer that the World Championship ends like this" - Mike de Decker becomes first shock exit at 2025 World Darts Championship

Mike de Decker could not live up to the high expectations at the 2025 PDC World Darts Championship. 'The Real Deal' was seen as one of the dark horses for the world title, but on Tuesday, found himself handed a disappointing second round exit.

It must be said, De Decker did not have an easy draw. As number 24 in the world, he was directly admitted to the second round, where eventually, recent European Championship semi-finalist Luke Woodhouse became his opponent. The Englishman took full advantage of an off-day from De Decker and somewhat comfortably sailed to a 3-1 victory in sets.

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“It just wasn’t my match. And I have no explanation for it," the World Grand Prix champion reflected honestly afterwards to Het Nieuwsblad. "I was throwing in and everything was going well, doubles and trebles. I felt so good. Then I get on that stage and I’m miles away from it all. It just wasn’t meant to be...”

As mentioned, earlier this year, De Decker won the World Grand Prix in sensational fashion. Back then, the Belgian said he always had a bad preparation. Now the roles were reversed. "Next time I'll only throw 1 and 5 during preparation," De Decker laughed. "No, it just didn't want to happen. Of course that's why I'm disappointed. I said a couple of times that I wanted to survive Christmas for once and again it didn't work out, for the fourth time in a row. But yes, Luke was better. He wasn't great, but he was on the important moments - there weren't many - just a lot better and more consistent. Then you lose, simple."

This defeat thus ends a special year in a disappointing way for the Belgian. "It is unfortunate that I have to end my year like this, but it was the first time I was a seed at the World Championship. I'm disappointed, but I always am. First round, second round, quarterfinals... doesn't matter," De Decker concludes. "I also didn't immediately feel more pressure to have to perform here. There were people who saw me getting far, but I did. Maybe I made a mistake there, because I've never actually thought that. That I could do ‘weird’ on a particular major. At the Grand Prix neither did I and I won that one, so I might not have thought that better. But yes, it is like this now and we are already looking at next year. I am very happy with 2024. I've been telling my management for four years that I'm going to win a floor tournament. I finally did that and a major on top. I never thought that in my life. My year has been brilliant. It's a bummer that the World Championship ends like this, but so be it."

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