Smith out to prove a point after De Sousa win: "I didn't stand a chance tonight as you see by all of the commentary and bookies"

Michael Smith dumped out Jose de Sousa in a tiebreak thriller to reach the Quarter-Finals of the World Matchplay after a brilliant tie.

Smith was pleased to prove a point and prove a lot of people wrong with victory with the onus placed on 'The Special One'.

"The biggest thing for me was being written off. I was supposed to be the first seed that got beat off Ryan Searle, I didn't stand a chance tonight as you see by all of the commentary and bookies. I'm still here and I'm still in the tournament," said Smith post match.

It has been duly noted by Smith about De Sousa also doing the heart symbol on his walk-on which he did at the end and he explained the reasoning behind doing it when he won.

"For the last 12 to 16 months, Jose's been doing it. It's kind of mine, I don't copyright it but it's kind of what I do. He did it again on his walk on and I was like you know what I'm not going to do it today. I'm just going to do it when I beat him."

He also discussed the break before the tiebreak and what that did to him mentally going into the latter half of the match.

"When I was 10-8 down, got it back to 10-10. I was like it's your darts now, hold throw and he's not going to get close to you and when he hit the double and the music come on. I thought he gets to reset himself, he gets to do everything right well luckily enough when I come back out I didn't play the best but I just took my chances when I had to."