The first of today’s two semi-finals came to a conclusion this morning as form player Mark Selby played semi-final debutant Ricky Walden. Click below to read how the match went and read what both players had to say:
Ricky Walden 6-4 Mark Selby
Ricky Walden continued the week of his career with a another terrific fightback to defeat provisional world number three Mark Selby 6-4 this morning.
Without scoring heavily during the early stages of the match, Selby found himself 3-1 ahead at the interval as Ricky struggled to get his game going. Mark then made it 4-1 and it was looking like game over, given how Selby had played all week.
Ricky however, having already come back from deficits against Stephen Hendry, Neil Robertson and Steve Davis this week, was not going to lie down and began to show the form that had taken him this far. Breaks of 86, 58 and 30 helped to bring him level before remarkably he won the next two frames to complete a sensational win to take him to his first final.
Selby did have his chances as in the last frame when Walden missed when in amongst the balls, but he could not take advantage while Walden proved to be much more clinical when given a chance to finish off a frame.
Having led 4-1 Mark will be very disappointed not to reach what would have been his fourth ranking event final, particularly given how well he has played this week. He will at least move up to third ahead of Shaun Murphy in the provisional rankings as a result of this semi-final appearance.
Walden meanwhile goes through to his first final where he will play either Ronnie O’Sullivan or Stephen Maguire tomorrow. He really is playing as well as he ever has at the moment, having won the Belgian Open last month and now beaten the players that he has in Shanghai. Again he will go into the final as the underdog, whoever wins the other semi, but the way he has playing, I certainly wouldn’t write him off.
Quotes from SkySports:
Ricky:
“I’m thrilled to bits to be in my first final but it was a real struggle out there this afternoon.
“I had a bit of luck today, but then I’ve had plenty of bad luck over my career so I think it evens itself out, but I’m happy to have some today.
“I’m not bothered who I face, it’s the old cliche. Stephen is a good friend of mine so it would be good to play him, but Ronnie is the best in the world so I don’t mind.
“To be honest, for three years in my head I’ve been expecting to come to events and win them, so it’s good to get to a final at last.”
Mark:
“Obviously I’m very disappointed to lose from 4-1 up,”
“Ricky didn’t perform up to that point but after that he played a lot better. I seem to do really well over here in China. I thought I had a good chance to go on and win the tournament here but it hasn’t happened.
“I can’t put my finger on it, I had plenty of chances but for whatever reason I couldn’t take them.”
Ricky Walden 6-4 Mark Selby 9-69, 31(31)-67, 74(41)-46(43), 9-97(41,47), 29-70, 71(30)-40, 78(58)-45, 91(86)-34, 81(34,36)-32, 74(47)-0