Snooker: Magic ton for Stevens
Matthew Stevens joined an elite band of players when he registered the 100th century of his career in the Embassy World Championship semi-final with John Higgins at the Crucible in Sheffield.
Stevens, who turned professional in 1994, reached the milestone in frame 10 with a 133 break as he continued his stirring fightback in the best of 33 encounter.
The world ranked number six, who is still to win a ranking tournament, became the 14th player to join the ton-up club and the second Welshman after current champion Mark Williams.
It was Stevens sixth century of the tournament and his second of the match after his 100 break in the opening frame on Thursday.
The onus had been on Stevens to ensure that Higgins did not build on his 5-3 overnight advantage and he made the best possible start.
He put together a run of 52 his fourth half-century of the match before breaking down when missing a red while using the rest into the right black pocket.
There were still enough points for Higgins to win, but he also was off target with a red into the same pocket which allowed Stevens the opportunity to seal the frame.
Then came his magical 100th ton in frame 10 and he was soon scoring heavily again in the 11th with a 73 break.
That was sufficient to earn Stevens his fourth frame on the trot and put him ahead at 6-5 for the first time since the opening frame.
Higgins made a positive start to the final frame before the interval, but after a run of 40 he missed a red into the left black pocket.
Stevens reply of 59 was the fifth successive frame in which he had a break of more than 50.
But this time it was not enough to win the frame. He double-kissed the final red to let Higgins in with a chance and a 32 clearance brought the match level at 6-6.
In the other semi-final, Ronnie O’Sullivan will go into tonight’s third session holding a 10-6 advantage over Joe Swail after the pair shared eight frames in the second phase of the match.
O’Sullivan, leading 6-2 overnight, began as if he intended to win the game in double quick time with century breaks in the first two frames.
But Swail has not earned the title of the comeback king for nothing after his recoveries against Sean Storey, Mark Williams and Patrick Wallace earlier in the tournament.
He won four of the next six frames to keep himself hanging onto the shirt tails of O’Sullivan, although ‘The Rocket’ is still a hot favourite to reach his first Embassy final.
