After much speculation the final wildcard spot for the Wembley Masters has been awarded to world number 35 Ricky Walden, largely as a result of his spectacular victory in the final of the Shanghai Masters earlier this season…
It is a well-deserved award for Ricky as despite mixed results since, that victory in Shanghai was well earned with victories against Stephen Hendry, Steve Davis, Mark Selby and Ronnie O’Sullivan amongst others on the way.
After failing to qualify for the UK Championship this week I was starting to worry that Ricky might be overlooked in favour of some of the form players like Matthew Stevens and Mark Williams, or perhaps a local legend like Steve Davis. In the end though I think the right decision has been taken and hopefully he will be able to do himself justice next month in London.
In my poll on this website last month over who should get the wildcard, Ricky pulled in 18% of the votes so well done to anyone who went with him!