Matthew Stevens in line to face Barry Hawkins or Xiao Guodong: 2012 Australian Goldfields Open
After missing the 2012 Wuxi Classic last month due to a back injury, the Welshman Matthew Stevens got himself treated and rested for a while to prepare for the 2012 Australian Goldfields Open snooker tournament. He started his Aussie event campaign after
a complete recovery and played well in his first match against China’s Liang Wenbo to beat him by the score line of 5-3.
The clash seemed an easy win for the Welshman as he was in full swing on the opening day of the tournament. He completely dominated the first session with a 3-1 lead. However, Stevens faced some resistance from the Chinese player in the second session as
he clinched a couple of frames to pull level at 3-3. Stevens came back strong to claim the next two frames and win his first match by the score line of 5-3.
Stevens has successfully stepped into the second round stage of the 2012 Australian Goldfields Open where he will meet the winner of the first round encounter between the 2012 Snooker Shootout winner Barry Hawkins and China’s Xiao Guodong. The Welshman is
all set to face any of them as he is feeling quite confident.
While speaking to World Snooker about his next opponent, Stevens said, “Barry is a fantastic player. We had a great match in the World Championship which I managed to win 13-11, and Xiao was my practice partner for about 12 months. He's improved a lot since
then, I've watched him progress over the last 12 to 18 months and he's an exceptional talent.”
He added, “It's going to be a tough match for Barry but whoever you play these days, you know it's going to be tough.”
This year’s first two major ranking snooker events are missing the former four-time World Snooker Champion from Scotland John Higgins and the reigning World Champion from England, Ronnie O’Sullivan. Both of them are resting back home with their family and
might appear in any of the upcoming snooker events.
It will be exciting to see if Stevens faces either Hawkins or Guodong in the next round of the tournament. Stevens looks to be in very good form and will be definitely battle it out for top honours.
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