Darts results: Michael Smith ends a two-year title drought by winning the first event of the Winter Series
Michael Smith ended a title drought of more than two years as he defeated Jermaine Wattimena to win the opening Players Championship event of the five-day Winter Series in Coventry.
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Fresh from finishing runner-up alongside Rob Cross at the World Cup of Darts in Austria on Sunday, Bully Boy finally won his first tournament since the 2018 Shanghai Masters - against Voltage - in July 2018.
Smith's reaction after pinning double top to seal an 8-6 victory over the Dutchman, who was seeking his maiden PDC crown, said it all as he banished the demons of losing his last 10 finals, including two this year.
One of those was an agonising defeat to Peter Wright at the televised Masters back in February, in which he spurned three match darts in a deciding leg, while the others included the 2019 World Championship, World Matchplay (2019) and the World Series of Darts Finals (2018).
The 2018 Premier League runner-up may well be still waiting to add a major honour onto a CV that's is surely destined to end up with plenty, but this 11th senior PDC title will give him a much-needed shot in the arm ahead of next week's Grand Slam of Darts, the Players Championship Finals and, indeed, the World Championship.
Smith, who hit a nine-darter in front of fans earlier this season, averaged 93 compared to Wattimena's 88.5 in a hard-fought final which he kicked off with a wonderful 170 checkout, but the real drama came when he was leading at 5-4.
The Machine Gun incredibly bust 16 twice with his first attempt at double before Smith eventually found double ten to hold throw and move within two legs of the title.
From there, the St Helens ace took control and claimed the £10,000 winners' cheque.
"It means everything to me to win this," an emotional Smith told www.pdc.tv. "I said to Ian White 'I'm winning one of these titles this week no matter what' and I've done it on Day One.
"I don't give up. I believe in myself 100 per cent and this shows what you can achieve in life if you carry on. I've been averaging 100 all day until the final but I don't care/ I've finally got a ProTour win to my name after so long."
In the semi-finals he'd seen off Peter Wright's conqueror Jose De Sousa 7-5 with a 98.3 average but his best statistical performances came when beating Joe Cullen 6-4 (103.5) in the last 16, Ryan Murray 6-2 (105.8) in round three and Callan Rydz 6-3 (103.5) in his opening match of the day.
Smith only needed averages in the low 90s to see off Boris Krcmar and Conan Whitehead 6-2 in his other two matches.
Wattimena's run to his third ranking final has boosted his chances of reaching the BoyleSports Grand Slam of Darts as the highest-ranked player on the Winter Series Order of Merit not to have already qualified for the televised event - but there are of course four days still to go.
He averaged a breathtaking 112.2 in a 7-3 semi-final win over Brendan Dolan and also recorded three figures against Vincent van der Voort (104.5) and Luke Humphries (102) in 6-3 and 6-5 wins respectively. His other victories came against Simon Stevenson (6-1), Jelle Klaasen (6-3) and Ian White (6-5).
Players Championship Results: Winter Series Day One
Last 16 onwards. For all the Players Championship results and detailed stats, head to Dart Connect (tv.dartconnect.com/events/pdc)
Last 16
- Vincent van der Voort 6-5 Jim Williams
- Jermaine Wattimena 6-1 Simon Stevenson
- Brendan Dolan 6-1 Toni Alcinas
- Damon Heta 6-1 Ron Meulenkamp
- Peter Wright 6-4 Dimitri Van den Bergh
- Jose De Sousa 6-3 Danny Noppert
- Conan Whitehead 6-2 William Borland
- Michael Smith 6-4 Joe Cullen
Quarter-Finals
- Jermaine Wattimena 6-3 Vincent van der Voort
- Brendan Dolan 6-0 Damon Heta
- Jose De Sousa 6-3 Peter Wright
- Michael Smith 6-2 Conan Whitehead
Semi-Finals
- Jermaine Wattimena 7-3 Brendan Dolan
- Michael Smith 7-5 Jose De Sousa
Final
- Michael Smith 8-6 Jermaine Wattimena