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Name: Ricky Walden

DOB: November 11th, 1982

Nationality: England

Turned Pro: 2000

Highest Ranking: #20 (2009/10)

Current Ranking: #20

Highest Break: 141 (UK Tour 2000)

Career Highlights: 2008 Roewe Shanghai Masters Champion, 2005 China Open Quarter-Finalist, 2008 Sangsom 6-Reds International & Belgian Open Champion

In short

The talented Ricky Walden has taken a while to deliver on his potential on the biggest stage so far in his career, but this now looks like it might be about to change. Having taken victory in his first ranking event final at the 2008 Shanghai Masters with victories against the likes of Mark Selby and Ronnie O’Sullivan, Ricky showed that if he can perform at his best he is a match for anyone. It will now be interesting to see whether he can produce these performances on a more consistent basis…

Early career

A strong amateur, his most notable achievements were becoming the 1998 EASB U-17 Champion and victory in the 2001 IBSF World U-21 Championship, beating Sean O’Neill 11-5 in the final.

Since turning professional in 2000 however, he has found it more difficult to translate his obvious talent into strong results in the ranking events. From his first few years on the main tour, his best results were a run to the last 16 of the UK Championship and a quarter-final place in the 2005 China Open which helped move him up into the top 48 for the first time.

For the next few years this is as good as it got for Ricky, maintaining his position in the top 48 and failing to make a real impact in the biggest events. Despite this, his obvious talent was still on show in various pro-am events as he has continued to play at Pontin’s in various events, winning many along the way.

Shanghai Surprise

In 2008/9 this was all to change as Ricky went on a tremendous run at the 2008 Shanghai Masters. Following on from a fine victory in the Belgian Open pro-am event where he defeated former world-champion Graeme Dott 4-0 in the final, he reached his second ranking event quarter-final in Shanghai. He wasn’t to stop here however as he defeated Steve Davis in this match before making a terrific comeback to overcome Mark Selby in the semi-final having trailed 4-1 at one point.

Facing the world number one Ronnie O’Sullivan who was gunning for his third ranking event title in a row in the final, Ricky caused a sensation by defeating the Essex Exocet 10-8 to prevent this from happening. Given that it was Ricky’s first appearance in a ranking event final, he handled the pressure magnificently and closed out the match with a cracking 105 century break.

2008/9 – Post Shanghai

Although he has not since been able to repeat his amazing run in Shanghai, he has continued to maintain a high standard and regularly qualified for the TV stages of events. Furthermore he was awarded one of the two wildcard spots for the Masters at Wembley and having comfortably dispatched Mark King early on, pushed defending champion Mark Selby all the way before going down 6-5.

Despite having suffered a couple of defeats to Stephen Hendry over in Bahrain and Beijing, he produced a couple of excellent performances in qualifying for the World Championship to defeat Rod Lawler and Anthony Hamilton to finally qualify to play at the Crucible for the first time. Once there though he had one of the toughest draws he could have got against Mark Selby and despite putting up a strong showing, was defeated 10-6.

Nevertheless it was an excellent season for him and as he finished up in a career high position of number 20 in the rankings, he is well-placed to move up into the top 16 in the near future if he can keep up his consistent level of performance.

Website: http://www.rickywalden.co.uk/news.php

Tournament Victories:

Ranking Event wins (1)

Non-ranking Event wins (2)

Profile supplied by Matt Huart (http://prosnookerblog.com/)