MICHAEL SMITH has vowed to win more titles than his old Scottish mentor Gary Anderson before he retires!

The World No 1 has been finally enjoying the life as a World Champion, splashing out on Dom Pérignon, cigars and gambling in Las Vegas.

But now he is back down to business in the Premier League after falling out of the top four finals places.

He also admits to wanting bragging rights over Ando, who sponsored him for his first chance in the PDC 15 years ago.

Smith revealed: “The pressure is off now that I’m World No.1 and World Champ. But I quite liked the pressure of wanting to achieve that.

“If I wasn’t winning I was trying my hardest to get there. Now that I’ve got it, I’ve lost that little bit of fight.

“I think it’s just because this year I’ve been mad busy, I’ve not had enough time on the board. I’m sure that fight and hunger will come back.

“I want more world titles than Gary (Anderson). I got to World No.1 which he never did. Being with him for so long and we are still mates. When we retire I want some bragging rights over him.”

Up until last November, it was close but no cigar for Smith with eight major final defeats. But after winning the Grand Slam and Worlds, now he believes he can add even more titles as the year progresses.

He added: “It’s been up and down, I wasn’t practising as much as I should. But I’ve been back on it the last couple of weeks so hopefully the form will come back.

“I had five days in Vegas to relax and chill. I literally haven’t had any time before that to enjoy being World Champion.

“The day after winning at the Ally Pally I had the media, the next day out to Germany for a pro-celeb event and then to Bahrain for the World Series.

“If you’re in the top eight in the world, you just don’t have any downtime whatsoever. But if I wasn’t doing that I’d be moaning as well!

“In August we’re in Australia and New Zealand for the World Series and when I get back we go to Tenerife for 10 days with the kids, that’s when I’ll get to properly celebrate.

“I’ve won the Slam, Worlds, Bahrain, one night in the Prem and the German Grand Prix.

“I’ve only won two titles this year but there’s still eight months left and a load more tournaments yet to play.

“Last year I ended up with eight or nine titles so the plan is to do better than that.”

Story by Phil Lanning