Ricky Walden is the International Champion after beating Mark Allen in todays best-of-19 frames International Championship 10-7 after a brilliant week of snooker from Ricky. Walden's week saw him defeat David Morris 6-3, Zhou Yuelong 6-5, Joe Swail 6-4, Jamie Burnett 6-1, Robert Milkins 9-2 ahead of todays 10-7 victory in the final against Mark Allen in a week that saw Ricky climb up to 8th in the World (so he's now seeded top 8 for the UK Championships), while Mark Allen climbed up to 6th in the world and Robert Milkins climbed back into the top 16 with Mark Williams now just behind in 18th. It's a bad week though for Judd Trump though as he's down to No.11 in the World which is his lowest ranking for some time I believe and Stephen Maguire is beginning to hover down in 14th and with lots of money to come off in February's Welsh Open he could do with some big ranking performances.
Back to today now though, and this is a quick little round-up of what happened today in the final between Ricky Walden and Mark Allen:
Ricky Walden 10-7 Mark Allen - The match started off pretty evenly in the first couple of frames with Walden having breaks of 49 and 59 to make it 1-0 before breaks of 40 and 45 in the next from Allen levelled it up at 1-1. The next 2 frames went to Walden with a run of 64 in the third as Ricky went into the mid-session interval with a 3-1 lead. That lead was soon cancelled out by Mark Allen though winning a scrappy fifth on the colours before making a magnificent century break of 113 to level that match up at 3-3, with just the three frames left in the afternoon session. Both players had good chances in the seventh frame but it was Walden that took the frame on the colours for a 4-3 lead. Ricky couldn't really get things together in the final 2 frames of the session as breaks of 47 and 52 from Allen helped him to taking both and the 5-4 lead going into the final session of possibly 10 frames in the evening. At this stage of the match you very much felt that it was anyone's match.
Ricky Walden was looking better and on top form again at the beginning of the final session as he won all of the opening three frames in turning a 5-4 deficit into a 7-5 lead. Runs of 47 and 45 in the tenth were followed by a 40 in the eleventh after a 44 from Allen, and the best of a lot an 85 in the twelfth showing the top form that got him to the final. Mark Allen hit back by taking the next two frames either side of the interval. He made it 6-7 at the mid-session break thanks to a run of 68 and he squared the match up once more at 7-7 with a lovely 74. What did Ricky have in response to being pegged back once again? Well the answer is some of the best snooker he's played all week given the circumstances and position of the match. A contribution of 85 put him back in front at 8-7 with several good recovery pots in there. Yet another century this week for Walden put him one away from victory at 9-7 with a brilliant 103 in that sixteenth frame showing that he wasn't going to shy away as the pressure went. In the seventeenth frame, Ricky made an early 54 before having to play safe, Mark then got lucky to cover a red that he put over the corner, but Walden was even luckier to miss a long pot sending reds round the table, only for one of them to drop in, a fluke that saw him on the way to a further 62 that sealed the frame, match and tournament with a fantastic display from the Chester man giving him a 10-7 win.
It really has been a really enjoyable week of snooker at the International Championships with some really brilliant games throughout the week including a complete classic of a semi-final between Mark Allen and Mark Williams before a fitting final to the end the event, and the best man coming out on top in Ricky Walden. Next week it's onto the Champion of Champions event at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry which can be watched on ITV4 in the UK and will be another great week of snooker which starts off tomorrow and ends next Sunday (with a day off on Thursday) and I will have updates from that throughout the week as I have this week with the action in Chengdu. I hope you've all had a brilliant week and enjoyed reading my pieces throughout.
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