Jonny Clayton sensationally claimed the 2021 Unibet Premier League title in his debut year as he defeated Michael van Gerwen and Jose de Sousa in Friday\u2019s Play-Offs in Milton Keynes.<\/p>\n
Clayton had snatched the fourth Play-Off place on Thursday and took to the stage 24 hours later as underdog – but walked off as champion after sealing an 11-5 win over De Sousa in the final.<\/p>\n
Having only confirmed his spot in the field after winning The Masters in January, the Welshman first defeated Van Gerwen 10-8 before going on to take the title in front of a sold-out crowd at the Marshall Arena.<\/p>\n
The final was competed between two Premier League debutants for a second successive year as Clayton took on De Sousa, who had defeated Nathan Aspinall in a last-leg decider in the other semi-final.<\/p>\n
The deciding match of the 2021 Premier League began with Clayton taking the early initiative, checking out 121 on the bull before breaking the De Sousa throw and consolidating with a hold of his own to take a 3-1 lead.<\/p>\n
The pair then traded holds before Clayton was able to break again in the seventh leg to move 5-2 in front, taking out 36 for a 13-dart leg.<\/p>\n
This seemingly inspired the Portuguese, who regained one of the breaks immediately after a ten-dart leg to give himself hope.<\/p>\n
Then, with the score at 6-4, Grand Slam champion De Sousa missed four darts at a double to close the gap to one before Clayton took his opportunity and pinned double 12 to edge towards the title in his first season in the Premier League.<\/p>\n
De Sousa did manage to break back immediately once again as he pulled the score back to 7-5 but time was running out for the 47-year-old.<\/p>\n
However, that proved to be the last leg he would win as Clayton strung together a run of four consecutive legs to win the title and the \u00a3250,000 top prize.<\/p>\n
Speaking after the match the match the 46-year-old spoke of his pride after becoming the first Welshman to win the Premier League.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve put Wales on the map again and it\u2019s just so incredible to be here and win this event,\u201d said an emotional Clayton.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re so lucky to have been playing over what has been such a difficult time for everyone.<\/p>\n
\u201cJose is such a great player and I just tried to keep my cool and get over the line, I\u2019m just so happy.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was also a memorable run for De Sousa, who took his chance to shine on the big stage once again by reaching a second televised final.<\/p>\n
\u201cI proved again that I am \u2018The Special One\u2019,\u201d said a humble De Sousa. \u201cThis crowd is so amazing and I just want to say thank you to everyone who supported us.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a tough final and well done to Jonny for becoming the champion.\u201d<\/p>\n
Earlier in the night, Masters champion Clayton ended Van Gerwen’s hopes of winning a sixth Premier League title with a pulsating 10-8 semi-final victory, averaging 103 and coming from 8-7 down to book a spot in the final.<\/p>\n
De Sousa then ensured that two debutants would appear in the final for a second successive year as he edged out Nathan Aspinall 10-9 in a thriller.<\/p>\n
Van Gerwen had finished top of the table for an eighth time in nine years, but admitted that defeat for the first time in a semi-final was a huge blow.<\/p>\n
“This one is on my chin,” he told RTL7. “I’m on my way back now but there’s still hard work to do.<\/p>\n
“Jonny played really great. I wasn’t consistent enough, he punished me at the right moments. I shouldn’t have put him in that position – I gave him the confidence and a great feeling.”<\/p>\n
2021 Unibet Premier League Final Jonny Clayton sensationally claimed the 2021 Unibet Premier League title in his debut year as he defeated Michael van Gerwen…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":3278,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[124],"tags":[],"lang":"en","translations":{"de":3281,"en":3277},"pll_sync_post":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pdc.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3277"}],"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=3277"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pdc.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3277\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3279,"href":"https:\/\/pdc.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3277\/revisions\/3279"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pdc.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pdc.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pdc.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pdc.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nPlay-Offs, Friday May 28<\/strong>
\nSemi-Finals
\nJonny Clayton 10-8 Michael van Gerwen
\nJose de Sousa 10-9 Nathan Aspinall<\/p>\n
\nJonny Clayton 11-5 Jose de Sousa<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"