"The favourite doesn't always win... I'm not going to miss many doubles against him" - Ryan Joyce fancies chances ahead of potential Luke Littler tie in last 16

For the second time in his career, 'Relentless' Ryan Joyce is into the last 16 at the PDC World Darts Championship, after seeing off a Ryan Searle fightback to prevail 4-3 in another third round thriller at the Alexandra Palace this year.

Having been leading 2-0 early on, Joyce had to watch helplessly as a rampant Searle stormed back to 2-2. Joyce refused to let 'Heavy Metal' move into the lead though, sweeping set 5 to make it 3-2 and despite Searle forcing a seventh and deciding set, it was Joyce that prevailed in a tie-break situation to take the 4-3 win and reach the last 16.

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"I'm just pleased to get through and very happy with the finishing," assesses a beaming Joyce in his post-match press conference, having finished the game with a very impressive checkout success rate of 62.1%. "I always talk up my finishing and it's nice to back it up with actually producing it on the stage so I'm very happy and I'm looking forward to the next game."

As mentioned, Joyce far from had things all his own way in the contest, only adding to the impressiveness of his victory. "It felt like Ryan's scoring hit a new level, the level he's normally capable of," he explains. "He didn't play well in the first couple of sets and I thought: 'wow there's only one where this match is going to go.' It was just a slight change in the throw, a slight change in rhythm, I started to play a little quicker and I think my scoring picked up a little bit. I sort of put him under pressure in every leg and the finishing was still there thank goodness."

After having reached the quarter-finals of the PDC World Darts Championships on debut in 2019, this is the first time Joyce has won a match at the Ally Pally post-Christmas since. "I'm a different player to what I was then definitely. I'm definitely more experienced," Joyce analyses. "I didn't feel under pressure then. I felt like I was in control of that game and that's a big difference from five or six years ago."

Joyce in action

Despite his good form in recent months, starring at the Grand Slam of Darts and Players Championship Finals, Joyce isn't exactly confident heading into his World Darts Championship last 16 tie. "I feel like I haven't played well and to get those stages of those competitions, I think I got lucky in a few rounds," he explains. "If I had have played any of the top players, I would have been out long before I got anywhere near those stages. So I didn't really take any confidence into this tournament. I felt my scoring is just not good enough to compete with the top players and I'm trying to put that right."

With either Luke Littler or Ian White next up, Joyce isn't going to just roll over though. "I have not got the scoring power consistently to compete with Luke Littler, but I can hit the doubles. So I'll go into the game thinking that I can win the match but I'll also feel like I'm the underdog," he previews of a potential meeting with 'The Nuke'. "As we've seen in sports so many times the favourite doesn't always win, otherwise it would be boring to watch wouldn't it!"

"If Luke Littler plays at his top level, he can beat anybody can't he? He'll brush me aside comfortably. But if he just has a couple of off-sets, I'm not going to miss many doubles against him so he's going to have to play well," Joyce concludes.

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