Mike De Decker is looking back to his clinical best. Following a woeful 2026, he has won only his second match on the European Tour this year after demolishing William O'Connor 6-2 while averaging a tremendous 107.14 in the Slovak Darts Open. The inaugural event is taking place in Bratislava, and already De Decker's showing is one of the standout performances in the tournament. He began by breaking with a 90 checkout before O'Connor took out 108 to break back ahead of taking a 2-1 lead.
By his standards, the Irishman was not at the races. An 86.18 average was not what he was looking for but De Decker still had to capitalise. 'The Real Deal' won the next five legs, taking out 90 once more to move him within one leg before sealing the match in a confident manner. Pinning six out of nine double attempts, his scoring was also looking a lot better. In his pomp, that was his greatest weapon. If he can produce those prior performances he mustered up in the past similar to this, then he will put himself in a much better position to challenge for accolades on the PDC Tour.
De Decker explained the methods behind his improvement on stage. "Well, before the World Cup, I changed to shorter points," he said in his interview afterwards. "At the World Cup, it worked, and now it worked again, so I'll definitely stick with these points. It felt good knowing that, I think in the second or third leg, when Willy went 180 and started getting into his flow, I wasn't panicking and I was still playing well. So yeah, it feels really good, finally, after all this time, to play well again on stage." The points seem to be working a treat with De Decker seemingly finding a piece of equipment that works for him. He has been struggling in recent times to find the right darts, but this is a massive step in the right direction.
"Well, I just had a 107 average, so something must be working now. And I'll put it down to the points because I switched to them a couple of weeks ago, and now I'm playing well. I played well on the ProTour — not consistently enough, but I played well. And now I've played well again, so I'll stick with the points for now." He impressed at the World Cup and has continued that form into a singles format. He is hopeful of getting back into the form he was in when he won the 2024 World Grand Prix in mesmeric fashion. With that prize money to defend, there is still a lot of work to do with the Slovak Darts Open his first priority. "Hopefully I do this again tomorrow, and hopefully I do this again for the rest of the year. My ears have been clipped, so hopefully from now on we can go back to the Mike from 2024."
