Matthew John Stevens (born 11 September 1977) is a Welsh professional snooker player. He has won two of the game's Triple Crown events—the Masters in 2000 and the UK Championship in 2003. He has also been a two-time runner-up in the other triple crown event, the World Snooker Championship, in 2000 and 2005. Stevens reached a career high ranking of No. 4 for the 2005/2006 season. Stevens has compiled more than 350 century breaks during his career.
Stevens became a professional snooker player in 1994; in his second season, he won the Benson & Hedges Championship to qualify for the Masters, where he beat Terry Griffiths 5–3 but lost 5–6 to Alan McManus. The following season, he beat Stephen Hendry 5–1 in the Grand Prix. In the 1997–98 season, he reached the semi-finals of both the Grand Prix and the UK Championship, achieving the highest break of the tournament at the latter. He also reached the quarter-finals on his debut at the Crucible in 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 6–10 to John Higgins.
In the 1999–00 season Stevens got to all three finals of the Triple Crown events. In the final of the 1999 UK Championship he lost to Mark Williams 8–10. He won the 2000 Masters title, with a 10–8 win over Doherty in the final. At the 2000 World Championship, he achieved victories over Tony Drago, McManus, Jimmy White, and Joe Swail, before facing Williams in the final. Stevens lost 16–18, having led 10–6, 13–7, and then 14–10, with 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 four frame overnight lead. In 2002, he came within one frame from securing a place in the final, leading Peter Ebdon 16–14 in their semi-final tie, and requiring a red in the 31st frame to leave his opponent requiring snookers. When Stevens missed the pot, Ebdon made a clearance to win the frame and went on to take the next two frames to win the match 17–16.
Stevens won the 2003 UK Championship, after beating Hendry in the final. He trailed Hendry 0–4 at the first interval, before winning the next five frames; Hendry fought back to lead 7–5, but Stevens responded and clinched a 10–8 victory. This was the first ranking tournament victory of his career. He followed this achievement 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.
He was runner-up at the 2005 World Championship, 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. He relinquished a four frame overnight lead to lose in the final, the third time this had happened in world championship history. Stevens insisted that Murphy had simply been the "better player" and that he believed he would eventually win the championship himself.
The following year, Stevens was beaten by Doherty 8–13 in the second round of the 2006 World Championship.
In 2007, Stevens lost 12–13 to Murphy in the quarter-finals of the World Championship, having led 11–5 and 12–7 earlier in the match, making him the first person to ever lose a best-of-25 match from a 12–7 lead. The defeat left him ranked outside the top 16 for the first time in eight years. In 2008, he was defeated in the first round of the World Championship for the first time in his career, by defending champion Higgins, and he finished ranked outside the top 16 for the second consecutive season. During the 2008–09 season, he reached the final of the Bahrain Championship, in which he was given a top 16 seeding due to the unavailability of three leading players. He only reached the last 16 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 world number 26.
In the 2010–11 season, Stevens reached the quarter-finals of both the Shanghai Masters, losing to Ali Carter 4–5 on the final black, and at the Welsh Open, where he exited following a defeat by Higgins. He was not ranked in the top 16, so did not automatically qualify for the World Championship; in the fifth round of qualifying, he overcame Fergal O'Brien 10–9 on the final black to qualify for the first time since 2008. He was eliminated by Allen in the first round of the main draw, losing four consecutive frames after leading 9–6. He then won the 2011 Championship League, beating Williams 3–1 in the semi-final, and Murphy 3–1 in the final, to qualify for the Premier League.
His performances during the season were enough to see Stevens 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.
Stevens reached the quarter-finals of the Shanghai Masters. His run was ended by Williams, who whitewashed him 0–5. A last 16 exit in the 2011 UK Championship to Ding Junhui followed, before Stevens reached his second ranking event quarter-final of the season in the German Masters. He lost to Ronnie O'Sullivan 3–5.
Due to being ranked inside the top 16, Stevens played in his first Masters tournament since [2007, and was beaten by 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 seventh in the ten-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 prior to entering the World Championship. Stevens 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 O'Sullivan in the semi-final and lost 10–17. Stevens finished the season ranked world number 10.
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 2012 UK Championship he beat Dominic Dale 6–1 and Fu 6–4 to reach the quarter-finals for the first time since lifting the trophy in 2003. In his game versus Mark Davis, Stevens was beaten 4–6. Stevens missed a brown at 4–1 up against Williams in the first round of the Masters and eventually lost 4–6. He also progressed to the quarter-final at the German Masters, where he was defeated 3–5 by 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. He beat Gilbert 5–4 with a borrowed cue and Murphy 5–3 with Mark Williams' cue before his own 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 was beaten 4–10. Stevens' season finished after he lost in first round of the China Open 2–5 to Rory McLeod and 7–10 to Fu in the World Championship, which saw him finish the year ranked world number 14.
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 lost 2–6 to Higgins. At the International Championship, he defeated Higgins 6–2, before being eliminated by Ding 1–6 in the third round. He was beaten in the last 32 of the UK Championship 2–6 by Robert Milkins. He also lost deciding frames in the last 32 of the Welsh Open and World Open to Joe Perry and Trump respectively. He failed to qualify for the World Championship this year as he lost 8–10 to Tom Ford in the final qualifying round. Stevens dropped out of the top 16 and ended the year as world number 19.