The Darts World Championship is very much the be-all and end-all for darts players competing on the PDC circuit. It’s the tournament that every player who enters dreams of winning at least once in their lifetime because they’ll then be declared the world champion and the best player on the planet. And Michael Smith’s dream came true at the Darts World Championship 2023.
Smith, aged thirty-two at the time, had been searching for success and to be crowned champion since he started playing darts in 2006. Bully Boy, who hails from St Helens, joined the PDC ranks two years later in 2008, and in the decade that followed, began to build towards being a winner in the organisation’s premier competitions. Again, something every player on the tour aims to achieve.
However, in the case of Smith, there were reasons why he could have decided to throw the towel in. In 2018, he was runner-up in Premier League Darts and the World Series Finals, followed up in 2019 when he was runner-up in the World Matchplay. Smith was the runner-up in 2020 Masters, too. And then came the biggie: in 2022, he was also the runner-up in the UK Open and the European Championship.
It seemed like it would never happen for Bully Boy, that was until in 2022, he was declared the Grand Slam champion, before beginning the World Championship in December of the same year and lifting the trophy by defeating Michael van Gerwen 7-4 in a thrilling final where he also managed to hit an iconic nine-dart finish en route to victory. It was finally Smith’s time to be in the spotlight for all the right reasons, but he’ll have probably had to check the darts results to make sure he wasn’t dreaming all the same.
Heading into the Darts World Championship 2023, defending champion Peter Wright and 2021 winner Gerwyn Price led the way in terms of players expected to be there or thereabouts in the latter stages. Michael van Gerwen was also heavily fancied, but so was Smith, especially after his success in the Grand Slam and his host of near misses in finals of premier events.
And from the get-go, Smith appeared as though newfound confidence was streaming through his veins as he made it past Nathan Rafferty, Joe Cullen, Martin Schindler and Stephen Bunting to set up a semi-final clash against an in-form Gabriel Clemens. Again, Bully Boy made light work of the opposition, winning comfortably with a score of 6-2, setting up a monstrous final against three-time world champion van Gerwen, who had won in style 6-0 in his semi-final match against Dimitri Van den Bergh.
As far as finals in the Darts World Championship go, you couldn’t have asked for much more. Smith was the Grand Slam champion coming into this, and van Gerwen has won the World Matchplay, World Grand Prix, Premier League Darts and Players Championship Final ahead of the big one. Both men were in form and looking to keep it going.
After winning the first set, many thought van Gerwen was on course to win his fourth World Championship, but Smith hit back by winning the next two, with Mighty Mike’s response being to win two sets in a row himself. However, the crucial part of the final was still to come, and it was in sets six, seven, eight and nine because Smith won them all and put himself on the verge of victory. He lost the tenth set but won a tense eleventh 3-2 to secure victory in dramatic fashion.
Since being declared the best player on the planet, Smith has not only shot to the top of the world rankings but also managed to stay there as world number one. And with the Darts World Championship 2024 just a couple of months away, he’ll be keen to mount a successful defence.
Bully Boy will undoubtedly start as one of the favourites, if not the favourite, to win the competition, even though the pressure will really be on for him to do just that. But any player who can pull off a nine-dart finish in a World Championship final has what it takes to handle anything that comes their way.
And what about the 2024 tournament? You can see all our PDC World Championship odds at BetVictor, and get more darts betting odds when you sign up.
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