Michael Smith set for £650,000 battle as ex-world champion leaves fans in tears
Former darts world champion Michael Smith left fans in tears as he turned up the heat to book a spot at his first major TV tournament since the UK Open in March
Michael Smith has booked his place at the Mr Vegas Grand Slam of Darts for the EIGHTH successive year after beating Krzysztof Ratajski in the final round of qualification – securing his first major TV tournament spot since March.
Smith, 35, has endured a difficult 2025 after first missing out on a place in the Premier League and then failing to qualify for the World Matchplay and World Grand Prix. However, ‘Bully Boy’ looked back to his best in Wigan on Friday, winning his three qualification matches to seal his place at the Grand Slam.
After the conclusion of the PDC Pro Tour season on Thursday, the Robin Park Leisure Centre played host to the Grand Slam of Darts Tour Card Holder Qualifier, as 104 players competed for eight spots in the £650,000 event.
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After receiving a bye to the last 64, Smith eased past Rusty-Jake Rodriguez 5-1 before coming up against Jose De Sousa – who is so often a difficult customer for the former world champion.
However, Smith showed his class to edge De Sousa 5-4 to set up a Grand Slam decider against Poland No.1 Ratajski. The St Helens star ended up coming through and beating Ratajski 5-3 to end his eight-month wait for a TV appearance since losing in the quarter-final of the UK Open against Jonny Clayton.
Fans were delighted to see Smith book his place at the Grand Slam. In response to the PDC’s post on X which announced Smith’s place at the Wolverhampton tournament, one fan said: “Delighted for him.”
Another wrote: “Tears in my eyes.” A third said: “Happy for him, would be a shame if he were to just vanish after playing phenomenal darts for multiple years!”
A fourth wrote: “Bully Boy! Yes!” Another admitted: Today will be the day you look back at when he’s back in the top ten in two years I bet absolutely huge for him.”
Opening up on a tough season, Smith felt as though losing to Kevin Doets in the second round at the 2025 World Championship cost him a place in the Premier League – and his form snowballed thereafter.
“I think it shows in darts, it doesn’t matter where you’re ranked – if you’re playing well you’re going to get invited to things and do everything,” Smith told the Weekly Dartscast.
“I think if I would have beat Doets that year, I thought I would have been in the Premier League, especially because I’d been in every major, made a semi-final that year, had a final as well. Just because I had one bad game, now no one even remembers my name.”
Smith was crowned as the World Championship winner in 2023 after defeating Michael van Gerwen in the final. Since then, he has found success difficult to come by.
However, ‘Bully Boy’ believes he’s finally got the fire in his belly back. “I just need to get that hunger back, which the last two months it’s started to come back a bit.
“Sadly, it didn’t come back at the start of the year, but it’s started to come back now. You can see my averages going up again around 95, 96, which means I’m about five points off competing properly, 10 points from winning.
“It doesn’t sound much, but it does over big long formats. A couple more hours on the board, another injection in December on my wrist and shoulder — and I’ll be like, Tin, man, then going into the Worlds. I’ll be nice and loose and concentrate on having a good 2026.”
Alongside Smith, Ricky Evans, Luke Woodhouse, Connor Scutt, Wessel Nijman, Danny Noppert, Karel Sedlacek, Lukas Wenig are the others that have qualified for the Grand Slam. Meanwhile, Peter Wright, Raymond van Barneveld, Jermaine Wattimena, Ryan Joyce and Ross Smith are the notable absentees.
A one-time Grand Slam winner back in 2022, Smith has featured at the event on 10 occasions before, with his first appearance coming 12 years ago. He has only failed to get beyond the round robin stage three times in the past.
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