Michael Smith is fighting to return to his former strength after a disappointing year without a title. The 2023 world champion is struggling with a particular moment.
These were the great years of darts professional Michael Smith. After the Englishman won the Grand Slam of Darts in 2022, his greatest success followed in 2023: Smith crowned himself world champion at Alexandra Palace in tears. In 2024, he also won the World Cup of Darts.
However, a crucial moment caused a hard career setback for the former world number one: In the last PDC World Championship, Smith lost in the very first match against Kevin Doets.
Michael Smith played a disappointing season so far
This was followed by a year without a single title and with only two semi-final appearances at the Players Championship 10 and 14. Consequently, Smith slipped to 29th place in the Order of Merit and even risks falling out of the Top 32.
“There are people like you and others who tell me where I am in the rankings. Personally, I don’t care as long as I can play and compete,” Smith explained on the Weekly Dartscast podcast. “In darts, the ranking doesn’t matter – if you play well, you automatically get invitations and opportunities.”
Due to the lack of success, Smith was not invited to the Premier League Darts this year, but the 35-year-old is convinced that things could have turned out differently.
“If I had beaten Doets, I probably would have played in the Premier League. I would have been in all the majors, maybe even reached the semi-finals or finals,” Smith speculated and expressed frustration: “But because of one bad game, it seems like nobody knows my name anymore.”
Apart from the early World Championship failure, Smith was also hampered by injuries and form fluctuations this year. As a result, he missed both the World Matchplay and the World Grand Prix.
However, ahead of the 2026 World Championship (starting December 11th LIVE on SPORT1 ), the darts star appears confident: “I had to feel the fire again, and in the last two months it has slowly returned. My averages are at 95 or 96 – still five points away from real competitiveness, ten from winning. “That sounds small, but over long games, that’s a huge difference.”
Before the World Championship, however, there is still the Grand Slam qualification in Wigan. An event with the character of a dress rehearsal for Smith.
“After that come the Grand Slam, the Players Championship Finals and the World Championship – three of the biggest tournaments of the year. If I perform strongly there and get back into the Top Ten, my career is back on track. That’s the beauty of darts: If I later win the Darts World Championship, nobody will remember that I missed the Matchplay,” explained Smith.