Callan Rydz won his first senior PDC ranking title at Players Championship 2 in Bolton on Friday, defeating Jonny Clayton 8-7 in the final.<\/p>\n
Rydz, 22, survived a match dart from defeat back-to-back ProTour runner-up Clayton in a thrilling finale to ensure a dream start to just his second year as a PDC Tour Card Holder .<\/p>\n
Previously a winner on the Challenge and Development Tours, Rydz – who was announced as PDC Young Player of the Year last month – came out on top of the 128-player field on the second day of the new ProTour season at the Bolton Whites Hotel.<\/p>\n
“It feels amazing,” said an emotional Rydz. “I’ve played well all day and taken my chances when I got them. The 127 I took out in the final was massive.<\/p>\n
“I’ve felt confident all day. Last year I lost a lot of games 6-5, now I’m a bit more experienced and consistent I’m coming out on the right side of those scorelines.<\/p>\n
“I said to my manager last night ‘I feel like I can win one of these’ and I’m so happy to have done it.”<\/p>\n
The young Geordie inflicted last-leg agony for a second successive day on Ladbrokes Masters champion and new Unibet Premier League star Clayton, who impressed with a 6-1 defeat of world number two Michael van Gerwen at the last 16 stage.<\/p>\n
The Welshman took first blood in the final with a 121 checkout to go 2-1 up before Rydz, competing in his first senior PDC ranking final, punished two missed doubles from Clayton by pinning tops to break back and level at 3-3.<\/p>\n
Rydz looked on course for glory when he tidied up 51 in two darts to go 6-4 in front, only for Clayton to reel off the next three legs, taking out 84 to move within a leg of the title.<\/p>\n
With Clayton waiting on 47 after missing a dart at bullseye for the match, Rydz found the same target for a match-saving 127 checkout to send the contest to a final leg.<\/p>\n
Rydz won the last-leg shoot-out in 15 darts, sealing the \u00a310,000 prize with an 87 checkout.<\/p>\n
Rydz also survived a match dart in wins over Boris Koltsov and Alan Soutar earlier in the day, before dropping just one leg in defeating Jeff Smith and Ian White to reach the semi-finals.<\/p>\n
There, he scored a 7-2 victory over world number five Nathan Aspinall, who made it to the final four for a second successive day.<\/p>\n
Elsewhere, it was another day of disappointment for World Champion Gerwyn Price who suffered a shock second round exit at the hands of Aaron Beeney, while world number three Peter Wright fell at the first hurdle to impressive newcomer Soutar.<\/p>\n
Raymond van Barneveld picked up his first win since making his return to the PDC circuit, coming back from 5-2 down to defeat Ryan Murray 6-5 before losing out to fellow-Dutchman Danny Noppert in round two.<\/p>\n
Vincent van der Voort made it two semi-final appearances in his last six ProTour outings, while Greece’s John Michael reached his first ProTour quarter-final.<\/p>\n
Super Series 1 continues on Saturday with Players Championship 3 as the 128 players compete for a further \u00a375,000 in prize money.<\/p>\n
2021 Players Championship 2 Quarter-Finals<\/strong> Semi-Finals<\/strong> Final<\/strong> Callan Rydz won his first senior PDC ranking title at Players Championship 2 in Bolton on Friday, defeating Jonny Clayton…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":2942,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[124],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2941","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-results"],"lang":"en","translations":{"en":2941,"de":2944},"pll_sync_post":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pdc.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2941"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pdc.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pdc.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pdc.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pdc.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2941"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pdc.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2941\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2943,"href":"https:\/\/pdc.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2941\/revisions\/2943"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pdc.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pdc.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pdc.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pdc.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nFriday February 26
\nLast 16<\/strong>
\nJohn Michael 6-4 Martin Schindler
\nNathan Aspinall 6-3 Rusty-Jake Rodriguez
\nCallan Rydz 6-0 Jeff Smith
\nIan White 6-3 Gary Anderson
\nSteve Beaton 6-2 Joe Cullen
\nVincent van der Voort 6-3 Dirk van Duijvenbode
\nJonny Clayton 6-1 Michael van Gerwen
\nMensur Suljovic 6-4 Chas Barstow<\/p>\n
\nNathan Aspinall 6-4 John Michael
\nCallan Rydz 6-1 Ian White
\nVincent van der Voort 6-3 Steve Beaton
\nJonny Clayton 6-3 Mensur Suljovic<\/p>\n
\nCallan Rydz 7-2 Nathan Aspinall
\nJonny Clayton 7-5 Vincent van der Voort<\/p>\n
\nCallan Rydz 8-7 Jonny Clayton<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"