Ricky Walden excited to play in China: 2012 Wuxi Classic snooker event – Snooker Update
First major ranking edition of the Wuxi Classic snooker tournament finished at the Wuxi Sports Center arena in Wuxi, China featuring the Englishman Ricky Walden as the new Champion.
Walden defeated the winner of the 2011 Australian Goldfields Open, Stuart Bingham by the score line of 10-4 in the final encounter of the tournament.
The first two sessions of the clash were dominated by Walden as he cruised to a 7-1 lead putting Bingham under immense pressure. He kept his cool and pushed his fellow countryman to the edge from where coming back seemed almost impossible. Bingham did try
his best to get back into the game with three consecutive frame wins but in the next session, Walden cleared the table completely with another three-frame win.
Despite the fact that Walden had played in China several times before but his visit has different significance for him. This is the first major ranking event of the new snooker season, the start of his season run and his first time entrance in the Wuxi Classic
snooker tournament. He won the 2008 Shanghai Masters event which was his first major ranking title. So he has won both the 2008 Shanghai Masters and 2012 Wuxi Classic titles in China that makes him feel nostalgic.
He spoke to World Snooker, “It's great to play out in China, the game's getting bigger and bigger over here. Four years ago when I won in Shanghai, it was all kicking off then and it was great to play then. Every tournament is different and if you can manage
to win in China then I think it's a good thing.”
He added, “It's my first time in Wuxi, obviously we've been playing a lot of tournaments in Beijing and Shanghai so it's always nice to come to a different place.”
His next stop will be the Bendigo Stadium in Victoria, Australia where he will take part in the 2012 Australian Goldfields Open snooker event where he might face Stuart Bingham once again as Stuart will be the defending champion. It will be interesting to
see how Walden manages to carry his winning momentum forward to the next snooker tournament of the new season.
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