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Matthew Stevens

Stevens continued to battle to get back to the top end of snooker during the 2009/10 season, but was unable to make real inroads as he moved just one place up the ranking list to No 25.
The Welshman started the campaign promisingly, winning his qualifying match to reach the venue stages of the Roewe Shanghai Masters, then beating Mark Allen to reach the last 16 before losing to Ryan Day.
Indeed he won at least his opening match in the first four ranking events, and got to the last 16 of the totesport.com Welsh Open after a 5-4 victory over Shaun Murphy which ended with a brilliant 75 clearance in the deciding frame. "Sometimes I need a kick up the backside to get the adrenalin going,” he said.
But Stevens clearly needed a few more kicks aimed at his posterior at the Betfred.com World Snooker Championship, as he suffered an agonising 10-9 defeat to Marcus Campbell in the final round, and thus missed out on the Crucible for the second consecutive year.
In 2008, Stevens enjoyed a superb run to the final of the Bahrain 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. "But I’m gutted to lose this one.”
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.

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