Walden Topples O'sullivan in Shanghai Shock

Ricky Walden, the world No35 from Flint, more than quadrupled his previous best pay day by beating Ronnie O'Sullivan, the world's No1, 10-8 to win the £52,000 first prize in the Shanghai Masters.

Beaten for only the ninth time in his 33 ranking finals, O'Sullivan took £25,000 as runner-up. Quoted at 80-1 prior to the tournament, Walden had previously reached only one ranking quarter-final but after winning a six-reds tournament in Bangkok in July and the non-ranking Belgian Open last month he had come to Shanghai with high expectations. "To be honest, I've been coming to events for about three years now, thinking I could win them," Walden said.

Wins over Stephen Hendry, 5-4, Neil Robertson, 5-4 from 4-1 down, Steve Davis, 5-2 after losing the first two frames, and Mark Selby, the Masters champion, 6-4 from 4-1 down, meant he became the last obstacle to O'Sullivan, winner of the world championship at the end of last season and the Northern Ireland trophy at the start of this, emulating Davis and Hendry with a hat-trick of world ranking titles.

O'Sullivan's best is unstoppably sublime but even he cannot play to that standard all day, every day. The closing phase of his semi-final against Stephen Maguire, his closest pursuer in the rankings, was outstanding as consecutive breaks of 141 and 84 put him 4-3 up only for Maguire to reply with 101 and 76 before O'Sullivan seized his 6-5 victory with 87 and 145.

Although he had his moments in the final, with a 108-break to lead 6-5, he was unusually prone to unforced errors as Walden won four of the next five frames to go two up with three to play. Two frames later Walden clinched victory in style with a break of 108 to rise to 17th in the provisional rankings, going into the Royal London Watches grand prix, which starts on Saturday.