Ricky sinks Ronnie in Shanghai

Walden: Maiden title victory

I am now going to go to Las Vegas with my friends and really enjoy it. I am thrilled to bits to win my first tournament.

Ricky Walden
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Ricky Walden produced a fine fightback to beat Ronnie O'Sullivan and win the Shanghai Masters title 10-8, sealing his success with a century break.

The qualifier from Flintshire was playing in his first ranking event final but settled quickly to go 3-1 ahead early on.

However, world champion O'Sullivan was bidding to follow Stephen Hendry, Ray Reardon and Steve Davis as they only players to win three ranking event titles on the bounce, and maintained his hope by going in 5-4 ahead at the interval.

The Chigwell cueman then powered into a 7-4 lead after the restart with a break of 108 and looked to be cruising towards the £52,000 first prize at the Grand Stage in Shanghai.

Determination

25-year-old Walden was not done though and should great determination as he then went on to take six of the next seven frames to claim the title.

Walden got it back to 7-6 before O'Sullivan regained a two-frame lead with a break of 8-2 putting him 8-6 in front.

Four frames on the spin then went with Walden though, with a 59 and 52 break pulling him level before edging ahead and then showing no nerves when one away from victory as he rattled in a superb 105 to claim the victory.

Walden is the 16th player from outside the top 32 in the world to win a ranking event, but he may not be there for long as he is knocking on the door of the top 16 after his win.

Celebration

A first title in his five-year career will be celebrated fully by Walden, who said: "I am now going to go to Las Vegas with my friends and really enjoy it.

"I am thrilled to bits to win my first tournament.

"I had a bit of luck, especially when I missed a few easy chances. But I managed to stay calm and I hope I can go on and achieve more now.

"I certainly want to get into that top 16 and win more tournaments."

O'Sullivan missed out on his hat-trick of winning events and admitted that he did not play well enough in the evening session to deserve the trophy.

"I am disappointed to lose," said O'Sullivan.

"I played okay this afternoon but tonight I wasn't at the races. I was poor.

"Ricky played very well. He's a good player and it's good that he has won an event.

"I never put him under any pressure so I deserved to lose. I have still had a good week to get to the final."