Jonny Clayton holds his nerve to reach last 16 of World Championship
Jonny Clayton was taken to the limit by Niels Zonneveld before moving into the last 16 of the PDC World Championship for a fifth successive year.
Clayton had to be somewhere near his best in a nip-and-tuck third round affair, in which the Welshman moved a set up three times only for Zonneveld to level on each occasion.
But the fifth seed held his nerve to clean sweep the deciding set and claim a 4-3 triumph, where he hit 11 180s and averaged 98.44 to his left-handed Dutch opponent’s 99.36.
Zonneveld had knocked out former world champion Michael Smith to reach this stage and Clayton said afterwards on Sky Sports: “I was thinking ‘Niels, please let me win this, please!’”
Clayton might be a regular in the fourth round but he has never progressed beyond the quarter-finals at Alexandra Palace and the four-time major winner knows he must improve to break his duck.
He added: “I’m going to prove myself, I’ve had a few down years. Hopefully I’m going the right way. I’m looking forward to every time I walk on this stage and I feel good.
“There’s a lot of loose darts, low scores. I need to get rid of them. You need those two treble visits and the more I get used to that and keep doing that then it gives me a little bit more of a chance.”
Poland’s Krzysztof Ratajski survived three match darts to overcome Gerwyn Price’s conqueror Wesley Plaisier 4-3.
Plaisier went 3-1 up and might have wrapped up victory in the sixth set but could not land the killer blow and Ratajski hit back to record a fine win and set up a showdown against Luke Woodhouse, who was given few problems in beating Andrew Gilding 4-1.
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