Ricky Walden was born in 1982 in Chester and brought up in Wales where he still lives to this day.
He first began playing snooker at about the age of twelve when he first started to go down to the local snooker clubs.
Ricky Walden started his professional career in 1999 when he got himself on the UK tour, which is similar to second division snooker. From there he went on to win the under 21’s world title in 2001. Walden was soon recognized as a player with exceptional snooker ability along with other young players of that generation such as Stephen Maguire, Ali Carter and Shaun Murphy.
Ricky Walden had a breakthrough season in 2004/05 when he jumped 30 places in the world rankings from 78 to 48 and also reached the quarter final of the China Open that season also.
His first title came in 2008 when he won the 6 red world championships, beating Stuart Bingham 8-3 in the final.
He won his first ranking title in 2008 winning the Shanghai masters. Since then he has gone on to win 2 more ranking event titles.
In the 2011/12 season Ricky Walden managed to reach the semi final of the UK championship beating Stephen Lee, Mark Williams and Shaun Murphy, setting up a semi final clash with Northern Ireland’s Mark Allen who won the match 9-7.
He has appeared at the crucible theatre six times for the World Championships where his best result has been semi finalist.
Known for being a quick break builder, Walden is quite off the table who likes keeping to himself.
Although Ricky Walden was marked as a star of the future back in 1999, he has sometimes struggled to reach the heights that others of his generation have reached such as Shaun Murphy and Ali Carter.
