Player List

Matthew Stevens

Undoubtedly the highlight of Stevens’ 2008/09 season was his run to the final of the Bahrain Snooker Championship.
He started with a 5-0 whitewash of Stuart Bingham at the International Exhibition Centre in Manama then beat fellow Welshmen Ryan Day 5-4 and Dominic Dale 5-2. A superb 6-4 defeat of Stephen Hendry put Stevens into his first ranking final in over three years. “It has been a tough few years but I’ve been working hard,” he insisted. “It does help when players miss against you!”
Up against Neil Robertson in the final, Stevens came from 3-0 down to lead 7-6, but crucially missed a tricky final black in the 14th frame, attempting to cut it into a blind pocket from close to a side cushion. Robertson nicked the frame and eventually prevailed 9-7.
Stevens was denied the second ranking title of his career and has now lost six out of seven finals. "I have won a few others though!" he countered. "I’ve won the Masters and two other invitation events so it’s not as if I’ve lost them all. But I’m gutted to lose this one. I was one shot away from going 8-6 up. If I’d been straight on that black it would have been easy left-handed, but cutting it back into the pocket was not easy.
"I’m disappointed but it’s been a good week to win four matches and I’m up a few places in the rankings. It’s a good boost for me."
He carried his good form into the Maplin UK Championship, beating Marcus Campbell 9-3 in the final qualifying round then scoring an impressive 9-5 win over Day at the venue before losing 9-5 to Marco Fu.
But there was little to celebrate for Stevens in the remainder of the season as he won just one match in the last three ranking events of the season. He missed out on the final stages of the Betfred.com World Snooker Championship for the first time since 1997 after suffering a 10-4 defeat to Martin Gould in the final qualifying round. Stevens ended the season with a fall of eight places in the official rankings to No 26.
In 2005, Stevens won two invitation events, the Northern Ireland Trophy when he beat Stephen Hendry 9-7 in the final and the Pot Black Cup when he beat Shaun Murphy in the one-frame knockout event.
Stevens has appeared in the Crucible semi-finals five times since 2000. In that year he met countryman Mark Williams in the final and led 13-7 only to lose 18-16.
In 2005 there was an unhappy case of history repeating itself for Stevens. Again he led 10-6 overnight in the world final – this time against Murphy – but again he finished on the wrong side of an 18-16 scoreline.
"I’ve still got plenty of time and one day I will win it," he insisted.
Stevens has, however, won snooker’s two biggest tournaments other than the World Championship.
In 2000 he won the Masters at Wembley, beating Doherty 10-8 in the final, and three years later he took the UK Championship title, beating Hendry 10-8.
A fluent Welsh speaker, Stevens enjoys playing golf and supporting Swansea City and Tottenham Hotspur. He is an accomplished poker player and pocketed a six-figure sum by winning the 2004 UK Open.
He and partner Claire have two sons – Freddie Morrell and Oliver.

Back to all Players