Ricky Walden insists he is finally moving in the right direction again despite being trounced by an irrepressible Mark Selby at the Masters.

The Chester cueman had no answer for the world number one, who looked imperious as he cruised to a 6-0 first-round win at London’s Alexandra Palace.

Walden has had a forgettable season so far and claimed he was embarrassed by a shock second-round exit at the UK Championship in November.

But after working hard over the festive period, the world number 12 is now content with his game and looking forward to a busy second half of the season despite his heavy defeat to Selby on Tuesday evening.

“I’m 100% moving forward now – everything’s good and my game is back. I’m looking forward to playing in tournaments,” said Walden.

“I’ve worked hard over Christmas and put eight or 10 hours in every day – I’m hitting the ball how I want to. There’s no problem with my game now, I just need to get some confidence and get some momentum.

“Mark played very well out there and put me under a lot of pressure right from the start. I couldn’t quite get a foothold in the game.

“The pressure builds sometimes out there and you can’t play as well as you want. It was a difficult situation from the off.”

Things had looked bright to begin with for Walden as he sunk a long red with his first shot of the match to set up an impressive 52 break, only for Selby to make a remarkable 71 clearance despite the balls being awkwardly situated.

The three-time Masters champion then went on to compile breaks of 113, 83, 81 and 76 to complete the rout and Walden acknowledges that he never recovered from the early body blow.

“That opening frame was obviously big. I knocked a long red in off the opening break and was looking good myself, but he made an incredible clearance,” added the 33-year-old.

“Then he punished me the frame after. That was more of a blow because to get two on the spin quite quickly was devastating at that stage of the game.”

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