Williams on dealing with pressure and hype: "People can say what they want to say"

Lewy Williams is through to a second round clash with Gabriel Clemens with Jonny Clayton potentially awaiting at the 2021/22 PDC World Darts Championship.

Williams faced the Japanese qualifier Shibata and despite not knowing what to expect, he was glad to shed the nerves and experience his debut with a win.

"I didn't know what to expect when I first got on stage, I didn't expect the crowd to be so loud. I didn't know what to expect from my opponent because I've never heard nothing about him before. But when we first started getting going, I felt a bit of nerves obviously but after hitting that first double I felt so confident for it and it was just amazing, what an experience," said Williams post match.

He has dealt with hype due to becoming one of the top rising stars in the game and he spoke on dealing with that.

"People can say what they want to say obviously. I believe in myself, obviously I know I can potentially reach the top hopefully but everyone's gonna have their own opinion whether it's a good opinion or a bad opinion so I'll just play my own game and see where I go from there really."

This experience this year has seen him reach the European Championship where he lost to Jose de Sousa in a closely ran tie.

"That extra bit of stage practice has done me really good coming into this and even though I lost against Jose, I felt at home on the stage. That definitely gave me that extra boost of confidence."