Mike De Decker
Mike De Decker | |||||||||||||||
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Personal information | |||||||||||||||
Nickname | "The Real Deal" | ||||||||||||||
Born | 15 December 1995[1] Mechelen, Belgium | ||||||||||||||
Darts information | |||||||||||||||
Playing darts since | 2010 | ||||||||||||||
Darts | 22g Bull's signature | ||||||||||||||
Laterality | Right-handed | ||||||||||||||
Walk-on music | "Three Little Birds" by Bob Marley and the Wailers | ||||||||||||||
Organisation (see split in darts) | |||||||||||||||
BDO | 2013 | ||||||||||||||
PDC | 2014– (Tour Card: 2016–2017, 2020–) | ||||||||||||||
WDF | 2013 | ||||||||||||||
Current world ranking | 24 (24 November 2024)[2] | ||||||||||||||
PDC premier events – best performances | |||||||||||||||
World Ch'ship | Last 64: 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025 | ||||||||||||||
World Matchplay | Last 32: 2023 | ||||||||||||||
World Grand Prix | Winner (1): 2024 | ||||||||||||||
UK Open | Last 32: 2024 | ||||||||||||||
Grand Slam | Last 16: 2024 | ||||||||||||||
European Ch'ship | Last 16: 2024 | ||||||||||||||
PC Finals | Quarter Final: 2024 | ||||||||||||||
Other tournament wins | |||||||||||||||
Players Championships
Youth Events
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Medal record
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Mike De Decker (born 15 December 1995) is a Belgian professional darts player who plays in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events. He is the current World Grand Prix champion, after defeating Luke Humphries 6–4 in the final.
Career
[edit]2014-2015: First appearances in PDC
[edit]Mike De Decker first played on the PDC Youth Tour in 2014 and reached the Last 16 twice. In the same year, he won the British Teenage Open at the World Darts Federation. He also qualified directly for a tournament on the European Tour for the first time. However, he lost his first match against Max Hopp at the 2014 European Darts Grand Prix.
At the beginning of 2015 De Decker played the PDC Q-School for the first time but was not able to win a Tour card. He still played the UK Open Qualifiers and managed to qualify for the 2015 UK Open, but was eliminated in Round 2 by Jan Dekker. In the following months De Decker was active on the PDC Challenge Tour and the PDC Development Tour. On the Development Tour, he reached three semi-finals and three finals. He won twice in his three final appearances. De Decker also took part in two other tournaments on the European Tour. In both the 2015 International Darts Open and the 2015 European Darts Open, he was unable to win his first match.
In autumn, the Belgian was able to take part in the Players Championships for the first time. From then on he took part in the 2015 PDC World Youth Championship as well and won a match against Dawson Murschell. Thanks to his good results on the Development Tour, the Belgian was able to secure a Tour card for the next two years.
2016-2017: Two years with Tour card
[edit]However, he continued to play the PDC Development Tour on the side and won a tournament there. At the beginning of 2016, he took part in the 2016 UK Open and the 2016 Dutch Darts Masters again, but was immediately eliminated. He then achieved his first victory on the European Tour in May at the 2016 European Darts Matchplay in Hamburg against Darren Johnson. In the second round, however, he was unable to win a leg against Mensur Suljović.
After a rather unsuccessful summer, De Decker then reached the last 16 of a Players Championship for the first time at the beginning of October. At the 2016 PDC World Youth Championship De Decker again only won one match.
In March 2017, De Decker threw a 9-darter on the Development Tour and reached a quarter-final and a semi-final. This was followed by a quarter-final at the Players Championships in April 2017. He reached the last 16 of the 2017 Dutch Darts Masters on the European Tour for the first time after defeating Richard North and Alan Norris and also qualified for the 2017 Players Championship Finals, where he was eliminated in the first round by Adrian Lewis. After a win on the Development Tour at the end of the year, De Decker again qualified for the 2017 PDC World Youth Championship and this time reached the last 16, where he was eliminated by reigning champion Corey Cadby. De Decker lost his Tour Card at the end of 2017 season.
2018-2019: Two years outside of Pro Tour
[edit]De Decker therefore took part in the Q-School again in spring 2018, but failed to win a Tour card. On the PDC Challenge Tour and Development Tour, he reached several quarter-finals and once the semi-finals. However, he failed to win a tournament for the first time. He also only reached the second round once in his two European Tour appearances, as well as at the 2018 PDC World Youth Championship. Here he lost his last match against Christian Bunse.
At the beginning of 2019, De Decker reached a quarter-final at the Q-School, but was again unable to win a Tour card. On the PDC Development Tour, he reached two quarter-finals and a semi-final. De Decker also took part in several European Tour events and reached the last 16 of the 2019 Austrian Darts Championship after defeating Chris Dobey and Jonny Clayton, which he narrowly lost to Rowby-John Rodriguez. At his last 2019 PDC World Youth Championship, De Decker again only made it through the group stage.
2020-2023: Back on Pro Tour and settling in top 64
[edit]In January 2020, he won a Tour card at the European Q-School in Hildesheim, beating Dennis Nilsson 5–3 in the Day 2 final. This meant De Decker returned to the Pro Tour for the first time in 3 years. This was followed by reaching the second round at the 2020 UK Open and, after reaching the round of 16 at a Players Championship event twice, he qualified for the 2020 Players Championship Finals. There he met José de Sousa in the first round and lost 6–3. De Decker also took part in the PDC Home Tour.
De Decker also qualified for the 2021 PDC World Darts Championship via the PDC Pro Tour Order of Merit. In his World Championship debut he met fellow debutant Edward Foulkes in the first round, losing 3–0 in sets. De Decker qualified for the 2021 Grand Slam of Darts in November via the Tour Card Holder qualifier. However, he only won one leg in three group matches against Peter Wright, Gabriel Clemens and Fallon Sherrock and finished the group stage in last place with a leg difference of -14.
At the 2022 PDC World Darts Championship De Decker defeated Darius Labanauskas in the first round. In the second round he lost 3–0 to Dave Chisnall.
De Decker qualified for the 2023 PDC World Darts Championship, where defeated Jeff Smith 3–1 in the first round. In the second round he lost 3–0 to Mensur Suljović. De Decker made his debut at the 2023 World Matchplay and 2023 World Grand Prix, losing both in the first round.
2024: Breakthrough in his career
[edit]De Decker qualified for the 2024 PDC World Darts Championship, winning 3–1 against Dragutin Horvat in the first round, but again lost in the second round, 3–1 to Madars Razma.
De Decker reached the fifth round of the 2024 UK Open, but lost there to Ricky Evans 10–5.
De Decker failed to qualify for the 2024 World Matchplay.
De Decker won his maiden PDC Senior title in 2024 by defeating Ricky Evans in the final at Players Championship 16.[3] This win helped him qualify for the World Grand Prix through the ProTour Order of Merit.
In October 2024, after securing his spot by winning his first title, De Decker went further and won his first ever PDC major title, defeating Luke Humphries 6–4 to win the 2024 World Grand Prix in only his second appearance in the tournament.[4][5] De Decker became only the second Belgian to win a major title after Dimitri Van den Bergh.
Throughout the season, De Decker managed to qualify for 11 out of 13 European tours, the first 10 of which were through the Tour Card Holder Qualifier. As a result he qualified for the 2024 European Championship, where he reached the second round on debut, defeating Josh Rock 6–1 before losing to Danny Noppert 10–6.
By winning the Grand Prix, De Decker qualified for the 2024 Grand Slam of Darts, being drawn in Group E with Michael Smith, Jermaine Wattimena and Mensur Suljovic. De Decker lost his first group match to Wattimena, but defeated Suljović and Smith to finish second in his group. De Decker lost 10–9 to Luke Littler in the second round.[6]
De Decker lost to Luke Woodhouse 3-1 in the second round of the 2025 PDC World Darts Championship.
World Championship results
[edit]PDC
[edit]- 2021: First round (lost to Edward Foulkes 0–3)
- 2022: Second round (lost to Dave Chisnall 0–3)
- 2023: Second round (lost to Mensur Suljovic 0–3)
- 2024: Second round (lost to Madars Razma 1–3)
- 2025: Second round (lost to Luke Woodhouse 1–3)
Career finals
[edit]PDC major finals: 1 (1 title)
[edit]Legend |
---|
World Grand Prix (1–0) |
Outcome | No. | Year | Championship | Opponent in the final | Score[N 1] |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Winner | 1. | 2024 | World Grand Prix | Luke Humphries | 6–4 (s) |
- ^ (l) = score in legs, (s) = score in sets.
Performance timeline
[edit]Tournament | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | |||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
PDC Ranked televised events | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
PDC World Championship | DNQ | 1R | 2R | 2R | 2R | 2R | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
UK Open | 2R | 2R | DNQ | 3R | 2R | 3R | 4R | 5R | ||||||||||||||||||||||
World Matchplay | DNQ | 1R | DNQ | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
World Grand Prix | DNQ | 1R | W | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
European Championship | DNQ | 2R | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Grand Slam of Darts | DNQ | RR | DNQ | 2R | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Players Championship Finals | DNP | DNQ | 1R | DNQ | 1R | DNQ | 2R | 1R | QF | |||||||||||||||||||||
Non-major televised events | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
PDC World Youth Championship | 2R | 2R | 3R | 2R | 2R | DNP | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Career statistics | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Year-end ranking | 120 | 93 | 71 | 137 | 130 | 90 | 59 | 53 | 39 |
PDC European Tour
Season | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2014 | GDC DNQ |
DDM DNQ |
GDM DNQ |
ADO DNQ |
GDT DNQ |
EDO DNQ |
EDG 1R |
EDT DNQ | |||||
2015 | GDC DNQ |
GDT DNQ |
GDM DNQ |
DDM DNQ |
IDO 1R |
EDO 1R |
EDT DNQ |
EDM DNQ |
EDG DNQ | ||||
2016 | DDM 1R |
GDM DNQ |
GDT DNQ |
EDM 2R |
ADO DNQ |
EDO DNQ |
IDO DNQ |
EDT DNQ |
EDG DNQ |
GDC DNQ | |||
2017 | GDC DNQ |
GDM DNQ |
GDO DNQ |
EDG DNQ |
GDT 1R |
EDM 2R |
ADO DNQ |
EDO DNQ |
DDM 3R |
GDG DNQ |
IDO DNQ |
EDT DNQ | |
2018 | EDO DNQ |
GDG DNQ |
GDO DNQ |
ADO DNQ |
EDG DNQ |
DDM 1R |
GDT 2R |
DDO DNQ |
EDM 1R |
GDC DNQ |
DDC DNQ |
IDO DNQ |
EDT DNQ |
2019 | EDO DNQ |
GDC DNQ |
GDG DNQ |
GDO 1R |
ADO DNQ |
EDG DNQ |
DDM 1R |
DDO 1R |
CDO DNQ |
ADC 3R |
EDM DNQ |
IDO 1R |
GDT DNQ |
2020 | BDC 2R |
GDC DNQ |
EDG DNQ |
IDO DNQ | |||||||||
2021 | HDT DNQ |
GDT DNQ | |||||||||||
2022 | IDO DNQ |
GDC DNQ |
GDG DNQ |
ADO DNQ |
EDO DNQ |
CDO DNQ |
EDG DNQ |
DDC DNQ |
EDM DNQ |
HDT DNQ |
GDO DNQ |
BDO 2R |
GDT DNQ |
2023 | BSD DNQ |
EDO DNQ |
IDO 3R |
GDG DNQ |
ADO DNQ |
DDC DNQ |
BDO DNQ |
CDO 2R |
EDG DNQ |
EDM DNQ |
GDO 2R |
HDT QF |
GDC DNQ |
2024 | BDO 3R |
GDG 1R |
IDO 1R |
EDG DNQ |
ADO 1R |
BSD QF |
DDC 1R |
EDO 1R |
GDC DNQ |
FDT 2R |
HDT DNQ |
SDT 2R |
CDO QF |
PDC Players Championships
Season | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2015 [nb 1] |
BAR DNP |
BAR DNP |
BAR DNP |
BAR DNP |
BAR DNP |
COV DNP |
COV DNP |
COV DNP |
CRA DNP |
CRA DNP |
BAR DNP |
BAR DNP |
WIG DNP |
WIG DNP |
BAR 2R |
BAR 3R |
DUB 1R |
DUB 1R |
COV DNP |
COV DNP | ||||||||||
2016 | BAR 2R |
BAR 1R |
BAR 1R |
BAR 3R |
BAR 1R |
BAR 2R |
BAR 1R |
COV 3R |
COV 1R |
BAR 2R |
BAR 1R |
BAR 1R |
BAR 1R |
BAR 2R |
BAR 1R |
BAR 1R |
DUB 2R |
DUB 4R |
BAR 1R |
BAR 2R | ||||||||||
2017 | BAR 3R |
BAR 1R |
BAR 1R |
BAR 3R |
MIL 1R |
MIL 1R |
BAR 3R |
BAR 1R |
WIG QF |
WIG 1R |
MIL 3R |
MIL 1R |
WIG 3R |
WIG 1R |
BAR 3R |
BAR 2R |
BAR 1R |
BAR 2R |
DUB 1R |
DUB 2R |
BAR 3R |
BAR 2R | ||||||||
2018 [nb 1] |
Did not play | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
2019 [nb 1] |
WIG DNP |
WIG DNP |
WIG DNP |
WIG DNP |
BAR DNP |
BAR DNP |
WIG DNP |
WIG DNP |
BAR DNP |
BAR DNP |
BAR DNP |
BAR DNP |
BAR DNP |
BAR DNP |
BAR DNP |
BAR DNP |
WIG DNP |
WIG DNP |
BAR DNP |
BAR DNP |
HIL DNP |
HIL 3R |
BAR DNP |
BAR DNP |
BAR DNP |
BAR DNP |
DUB DNP |
DUB DNP |
BAR DNP |
BAR DNP |
2020 | BAR 1R |
BAR 2R |
WIG 1R |
WIG 2R |
WIG 3R |
WIG 1R |
BAR 2R |
BAR 2R |
MIL 1R |
MIL 1R |
MIL 4R |
MIL 1R |
MIL 4R |
NIE 1R |
NIE 2R |
NIE 2R |
NIE 1R |
NIE 2R |
COV 1R |
COV 3R |
COV 2R |
COV 3R |
COV 1R | |||||||
2021 | BOL 1R |
BOL 2R |
BOL 1R |
BOL 1R |
MIL 1R |
MIL 1R |
MIL 1R |
MIL 2R |
NIE 1R |
NIE 3R |
NIE 1R |
NIE 4R |
MIL 2R |
MIL 2R |
MIL 2R |
MIL 1R |
COV 2R |
COV 1R |
COV 1R |
COV 1R |
BAR 3R |
BAR 1R |
BAR 1R |
BAR 4R |
BAR 1R |
BAR 3R |
BAR 1R |
BAR 4R |
BAR 1R |
BAR 2R |
2022 | BAR 1R |
BAR 1R |
WIG 1R |
WIG 2R |
BAR QF |
BAR 1R |
NIE 2R |
NIE 2R |
BAR 3R |
BAR 2R |
BAR 1R |
BAR 3R |
BAR 1R |
WIG 2R |
WIG 3R |
NIE 1R |
NIE QF |
BAR 2R |
BAR 3R |
BAR 1R |
BAR 1R |
BAR 2R |
BAR 2R |
BAR 1R |
BAR QF |
BAR 2R |
BAR 2R |
BAR 1R |
BAR SF |
BAR 4R |
2023 | BAR 1R |
BAR 2R |
BAR 3R |
BAR 2R |
BAR 2R |
BAR SF |
HIL 2R |
HIL 4R |
WIG 4R |
WIG 1R |
LEI F |
LEI 3R |
HIL 3R |
HIL 3R |
LEI 2R |
LEI 3R |
HIL 1R |
HIL 1R |
BAR 1R |
BAR SF |
BAR 2R |
BAR 3R |
BAR 2R |
BAR 2R |
BAR 1R |
BAR 1R |
BAR 1R |
BAR 3R |
BAR 2R |
BAR 1R |
2024 | WIG 4R |
WIG 2R |
LEI 2R |
LEI 1R |
HIL 1R |
HIL 1R |
LEI 2R |
LEI 2R |
HIL 2R |
HIL 2R |
HIL 4R |
HIL 3R |
MIL 1R |
MIL 2R |
MIL QF |
MIL W |
MIL 3R |
MIL 2R |
MIL 1R |
WIG 3R |
WIG 3R |
LEI 4R |
LEI 4R |
WIG 4R |
WIG 4R |
WIG 3R |
WIG 3R |
WIG DNP |
LEI 4R |
LEI 4R |
Performance Table Legend | |||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
W | Won the tournament | F | Finalist | SF | Semifinalist | QF | Quarterfinalist | #R RR Prel. |
Lost in # round Round-robin Preliminary round |
DQ | Disqualified |
DNQ | Did not qualify | DNP | Did not participate | WD | Withdrew | NH | Tournament not held | NYF | Not yet founded |
References
[edit]- ^ "Mike de Decker - Mastercaller".
- ^ "PDC Order of Merit". PDPA. 24 November 2024. Retrieved 24 November 2024.
- ^ Allen, Dave (1 August 2024). "Deadly De Decker sweeps to maiden ProTour title at PC16". www.pdc.tv. Retrieved 1 August 2024.
- ^ "World Grand Prix: Mike De Decker shocks Luke Humphries in epic final to clinch title". Sky Sports. 13 October 2024. Retrieved 13 October 2024.
- ^ "World Grand Prix darts final LIVE: Mike De Decker beats Luke Humphries - scores, results & updates". BBC Sport. Retrieved 13 October 2024.
- ^ Wellens, Megan (15 November 2024). "Grand Slam of Darts 2024: Luke Littler sensationally fights back against Mike De Decker to book quarter-final spot as Gary Anderson also progresses". Sky Sports. Retrieved 16 November 2024.