Matthew Stevens

Early career

Stevens became a professional snooker player in 1994 and in his second season won the Benson & Hedges Championship to qualify for the 1996 Masters. At the Masters he beat Terry Griffiths 5–3 but lost 6–5 to Alan McManus. The following season he also showed potential by beating Stephen Hendry 5–1 in the Grand Prix. In the 1997/1998 season he reached the semi-finals of both the Grand Prix and UK Championship. He also reached the quarter-finals on his debut at the Crucible of the World Championship, beating Alain Robidoux and Mark King before losing to Ken Doherty. In 1998 he reached his first ranking final at the UK Championship, losing 10–6 to John Higgins.

2000–2005

In 2000, he won the Masters, with a 10–8 win over Ken Doherty in the final. Later that season at the World Championship he reached the first of his two World Championship finals to date. After victories over Tony Drago, Alan McManus, Jimmy White and Joe Swail he faced Mark Williams losing 16–18 after having led 10–6, 13–7 and then 14–10 with only the final session to play. Stevens became only the second player in the history of the world championship to lose in the final from holding a 4 frame overnight lead.

He has also been a beaten semi-finalist on four occasions in 2001, 2002, 2004 and 2012. In 2002 he looked certain to have won a place in the final leading Peter Ebdon 16–14 in their semi-final tie, and just needed a relatively simple red in the 31st frame to leave his opponent needing snookers. Stevens missed the pot and Ebdon made a famous clearance to win the frame, and went on to take the next two to win the match 17–16.

Stevens won the 2003 UK Championship beating Stephen Hendry 10–8 in the final. He trailed Hendry 0–4, but remarkably he reeled off the next five frames. Hendry found his form again to lead 7–5, but Stevens was not to be denied and clinched a 10–8 victory, which remains the only ranking tournament victory of his career. However, he followed this with a run of nine successive first round defeats in best-of-nine matches, only interrupted by a run to the semi-final of the 2004 World Championship.

In 2005 he was again runner-up, losing 16–18 to Shaun Murphy in the final, having been up 10–6 and then 12–11 with only the final session to play. Again Stevens relinquished a 4 frame overnight lead to lose in the final, only the third time this had ever happened. The turning point was arguably the 22nd frame, in which Stevens had a shot at the final blue to leave Murphy needing snookers, but elected to play the shot left-handed rather than use the rest. He missed, and Murphy cleared the table to level the match at 11–11. Despite the disappointment, Stevens insisted that Murphy had simply been the better player and that he would eventually win the championship.

The following year, Stevens was beaten by Ken Doherty 13–8 in the second round, having gone into the final session level at 8–8.

2006–2010

In 2007 he lost 12–13 to Murphy in the quarter-finals of the World Championship having led 11–5 and 12–7, making him the first person to ever lose a best of 25 match from leading 12–7. The defeat left him ranked outside of the top 16 for the first time in 8 years. In 2008 he was defeated in the first round of the world championship for the first time in his career by defending champion John Higgins, and he finished ranked outside the top 16 for the second consecutive season. The only highlight of the 2008/09 season was a run to the final of the Bahrain Championship, in which the unavailability of three leading players gave him a top sixteen seeding. He only reached the last sixteen of one other event, and failed to qualify for the World Championship after a defeat to Martin Gould. He finished the season with a drop of nine places to No. 26.

Stevens enjoyed a solid 2009/2010 season. He qualified for the Welsh Open by beating Barry Pinches 5–4. In the first round, he caused an upset by defeating Shaun Murphy 5–4. He faced Northern Ireland's Mark Allen in round two, and despite making two century breaks he lost the match 5–2. Stevens also lost a close match 10–9 to Marcus Campbell in the 2010 World Championship qualifiers, and thus did not make it to The Crucible for the second year in succession.

2010/2011

Stevens made a promising start to the 2010/2011 season by qualifying for the Shanghai Masters, beating Anda Zhang 5–2. In the first round he defeated Liang Wenbo 5–3. He caused another upset in the last 16 by beating Shaun Murphy. He played Ali Carter in the quarter-finals but lost 5–4 on the final black, despite leading 4–1.

Stevens continued his solid form by reaching the quarter-finals at the Welsh Open. He qualified by beating Anthony Hamilton 4–2. There he whitewashed number 5 seed Shaun Murphy 4–0 and in the last 16 he beat fellow Welshman and close friend Ryan Day 4–3. In the quarter-finals, Stevens was drawn against John Higgins, but was edged out 5–3. Despite these performances he still wasn't ranked in the top 16 and so had to qualify for the World Championship, where he managed to beat Fergal O'Brien 10–9 on the final black to qualify for the first time since 2008. He was eliminated by Mark Allen in the first round, losing 4 consecutive frames after leading 9–6. He then won the 2011 Championship League beating Mark Williams 3–1 in the semi-final and Shaun Murphy 3–1 in the final, to qualify for the Premier League.

His performances during the season were enough to see him return to the elite top 16 in the world rankings for the first time since 2006, meaning he would no longer need to play qualifying matches to reach the main stage of the ranking events.

2011/2012

After losing in the first round of the Australian Goldfields Open to Liang Wenbo, Stevens reached the quarter-finals of the Shanghai Masters by defeating Stephen Lee and Martin Gould. However, his run was ended by compatriot Mark Williams, who whitewashed him 0–5. A last 16 exit in the UK Championship to Ding Junhui followed, before Stevens reached his second ranking event quarter-final of the season in the German Masters courtesy of 5–1 victories over both Craig Steadman and Neil Robertson. He then lost to Ronnie O'Sullivan 3–5.

Due to being ranked inside the top 16, Stevens played in his first Masters tournament since 2007 during the season and was beaten by John Higgins 2–6 in the first round. His first Premier League campaign since 2002 saw Stevens win 3 and lose 3 of the 6 matches he played to finish 7th in the 10-man league and therefore fail to make it to the play-offs. Stevens finished runner-up to O'Sullivan in Event 7 of the minor-ranking Players Tour Championship series and with last 16 finishes coming in Event 9 and Event 11, he was ranked 17th in the Order of Merit, inside the top 24 who qualified for the Finals. There he played Ricky Walden in the last 24 and lost 0–5 in 50 minutes.

Stevens was defeated in the second round of the Welsh Open and had successive first round losses in the World Open and China Open to go into the World Championship in less than auspicious form. However, Stevens had an excellent run as he reached his sixth semi-final in the event, and first since 2005. He reached the last four with wins over Marco Fu (10–3), Barry Hawkins (13–11) and Ryan Day (13–5, having won 11 consecutive frames). He played Ronnie O'Sullivan in the semi-final and lost 10–17, meaning Stevens has not beaten his opponent in almost a decade. Stevens finished the season ranked world number 10, the highest he has ended the year since 2005.

2012/2013

Stevens withdrew from the season's opening ranking event, the Wuxi Classic due to a bad back and could not advance beyond the second round in any of the next three events. At the UK Championship he beat Dominic Dale 6–1 and Marco Fu 6–4 to reach the quarter-finals for the first time since lifting the trophy in 2003. In a scrappy game versus Mark Davis, Stevens was beaten 4–6. Stevens missed a simple brown at 4–1 up against Mark Williams in the first round of the Masters and then made a series of errors during the rest of the match to lose 4–6. His second quarter-final of the season came at the German Masters, where he was defeated 3–5 by Marco Fu, before losing 2–4 to Stephen Maguire in the second round of the Welsh Open.

Stevens travelled to Haikou, China, for the World Open, but his cue failed to arrive on time for his first round match against David Gilbert. However, he beat Gilbert 5–4 with a borrowed cue and Shaun Murphy 5–3 with Mark Williams' cue before his own finally arrived for his quarter-final against Judd Trump. It was Trump this time who suffered cue troubles as his tip became damp during the match and Stevens took full advantage to triumph 5–3. He then came back from 4–5 against Neil Robertson in the semi-finals to win 6–5 and reach his first ranking event final since the 2008 Bahrain Championship. He faced Mark Allen in the final and, despite making two centuries, he was comfortably beaten 4–10. Stevens' season finished in disappointment as he lost in first round of the China Open 2–5 to Rory McLeod and 7–10 to Marco Fu in the World Championship, which saw him finish the year ranked world number 14.

2013/2014

At the season's opening ranking event, the 2013 Wuxi Classic, Stevens beat Lu Ning 5–1, Liang Wenbo and Peter Lines both 5–3 and David Morris 5–2 to advance to the semi-finals. He threatened a brief comeback against John Higgins from 5–0 down, but lost 6–2. He gained some revenge over Higgins at the International Championship by beating him 6–2, before Ding Junhui eliminated Stevens 6–1 in the third round. He was beaten in the last 32 of both the UK Championship (6–2 by Robert Milkins) and the German Masters (5–4 by Shaun Murphy, after Stevens had led 4–1). He also lost deciding frames in the last 32 of the Welsh Open and World Open to Joe Perry and Judd Trump respectively. Stevens failed to qualify for the World Championship this year as he lost 10–8 to Tom Ford in the final round. Stevens dropped out of the top 16 during the year to end it as the world number 19.

2014/2015

At the 2014 Australian Goldfields Open, Stevens reached his first quarter-final in a year by knocking out Luca Brecel 5–3 and Fergal O'Brien 5–3, but lost 5–2 to Xiao Guodong. He was eliminated 6–2 by John Higgins in the third round of the UK Championship, but reached the last 16 of the Welsh Open by recording his first victory over Ronnie O'Sullivan in 12 years as Stevens came from 2–0 down to win 4–3. However, he lost 4–2 against Marco Fu. Stevens was beaten in the first round of the next two ranking events, but thrashed Mark Williams 10–2 at the World Championship. Stevens suffered a heavy 13–5 defeat to O'Sullivan in the second round.

2015/2016

Stevens was eliminated at the first round stage of the International Championship and UK Championship, before winning his first matches at a ranking event this season when he ousted David Morris and Martin O'Donnell both 4–2 at the Welsh Open. He made three half centuries in the third round against Martin Gould, but lost 4–3. He reached the final round of qualifying for the World Championship and was beaten 10–6 by Kyren Wilson.

2016/2017

Stevens lost 4–1 to Neil Robertson in the last 16 of the Riga Masters. At the UK Championship he beat James Cahill 6–1, Michael White 6–4 and Joe Perry 6–2. His run ended with a 6–2 loss to Ronnie O'Sullivan. Stevens was knocked out 5–2 by Daniel Wells in the second round of the China Open and failed to qualify for the World Championship for the second year in a row after falling 10–8 to Lee Walker in the first qualifying round. His end of season ranking of 55 is the lowest he has finished a season since 1996.

Personal life

Stevens was born in Carmarthen, Wales, attended an all-Welsh-speaking school, Bro Myrddin Welsh Comprehensive School, and is fluent in the language.

In 2001, his father Morrell, who was also his manager, died unexpectedly, after which he had a few uneventful seasons. Stevens and his ex-wife Claire Holloway have two sons, Freddie and Ollie, who were born in 2004 and 2008 respectively.

Stevens was a close friend of Paul Hunter and was a pallbearer at his funeral. He is also a celebrity Texas hold 'em poker player and in 2004 won the UK's richest poker tournament at just 27 years old, beating 16 time World Darts champion Phil Taylor to first place. Stevens had only been playing poker for 18 months before his victory. In 2015 Stevens was declared bankrupt and got divorced around the same time.