- published: 17 Apr 2016
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Ricky Walden (born 11 November 1982) is an English professional snooker player from Chester.
Walden turned professional in 2000 and it took him eight years to win his first ranking title at the Shanghai Masters. He has since won the 2012 Wuxi Classic and the 2014 International Championship and has been inside the top 16 in the season-ending rankings on four occasions. Walden has reached the televised stages of the World Snooker Championship on five occasions with his best result being a semi-finalist in 2013.
Walden was born in Chester but raised in Bagillt, north Wales, where he now lives once more, having spent some time living elsewhere in Flintshire. He was one of the Young Players of Distinction in a scheme run in 2000, designed to help young players develop their playing and media skills, alongside Shaun Murphy, Stephen Maguire and Ali Carter. In 2001 he won the World Under-21 Championship.
Walden began his professional career by playing UK Tour in 1999 (renamed the Challenge Tour in 2000), at the time the second-level professional tour. Then he played Challenge Tour in 2001 and entered Main Tour. He started the 2004/2005 season ranked at number 78 in the world, but climbed 30 places that year. He beat John Higgins twice that season, at the Grand Prix and UK Championship, and reached the Quarter-Final of the China Open.
Ronald Antonio O'Sullivan, OBE (born 5 December 1975) is an English professional snooker player, and one of the most successful players in the sport's modern era. Regarded by many commentators as the most naturally gifted player in snooker history, and frequently described as a genius, he is also noted for his mercurial temperament and for his ambivalent relationship with the sport, from which he has taken prolonged sabbaticals and repeatedly threatened to retire.
A childhood snooker prodigy, O'Sullivan made his first century break at age 10 and his first maximum break at age 15. He turned professional in 1992, at the age of 16, and soon earned the nickname "The Rocket" because of his rapid playing style. He achieved his first major professional success when he won the 1993 UK Championship at the age of 17 years and 358 days, making him the youngest player ever to win a ranking title, a record he still holds. He is also the youngest player to have won the Masters, having captured his first title in 1995 at the age of 19 years and 69 days.