One of the greatest battles seen at the Crucible, Late Paul Hunter vs. Matthew Stevens
There was a great cut-throat competition seen at the Crucible Theatre in the world snooker championship 2004, which is still as fresh as it happened and is remembered by many.
It was a best-of-twenty-five frames match of the last 16 between Late Paul Hunter and Matthew Stevens, which went into one of the tensest deciding frames in recent history.
It is known as one of the best matches ever played and this is where the Welsh Dragon, Matthew Stevens, fought back from a seemingly hopeless position to edge out Paul Hunter by a frame
score of 13-12. The overall score-line between the players was 109-21, 58-67, 65-70, 47-83, 89-0, 62-45, 55-43, 2-85, 113-0, 18-54, 26-105, 57-43, 5-66, 0-125, 1-85, 41-82, 73-37, 91-0, 80-42, 77-0, 0-81, 24-106, 58-50, 61-31, and 63-50.
Both players presented a spectacular play by producing some classy breaks of 109, 113, 125, 99, 89, 70, 73, 67, and 64.
The Beckham of the Baize, Paul Hunter, was looking quite close to the finish line, as he outplayed his opponent in the first session and was leading by 10-6.
But in the second session the current world number 16, Stevens, clawed back, with all of his, zeal, energy, and strength and won all four of the opening frames in a row to level things
by 10-10. He enjoyed carving breaks of 58, 53, 64, and 73.
Hunter also bounced back and fired magnificent breaks of 81 and 99 in the following frames to leave his opponent two frames down with three to play, 12-10.
The match was almost through before Hunter missed an unbelievable, match-ball, pink in the 23rd to let Stevens back in.
The ninth seed, Stevens, fully capitalised on the given chance and clinched the frame on the black. He also won the following scrappy and the match went into the final deciding frame.
The final frame was quite dramatic, as the players missed some of the easiest shots bcause of the pressure. Many chances were seen coming and going until they came down fighting on the
last red.
A bout safety play was seen among the players until Stevens, who was trailing by 50-32, produced a mind boggling long pot under pressure. It looked as if the match is over now before Stevens
went out of position on the blue, losing his nerves on the brown ball, and was forced to play safe.
It took them more than six minutes on the blue ball until finally Hunter got a chance but he missed, as the amount of pressure he was in didn’t let him pot and they again started off with
the safety play. In the end it was Hunter who tried a difficult long pot with safety but was unlucky, as the cue-ball went in.
Matthew, on getting the cue-ball in hand, potted the needed blue and pink and secured a place in the quarter-finals.
Stevens was delighted with the victory but he admitted that his heart was in his mouth in the last frame. He related the frame with the Steve and Dennis 1985’s final due to the amount
of pressure.
A disappointed Hunter, who was also one of the tournaments favourite, reiterated his desire to become the world champion.
"You've got to believe in yourself in this game and I do - before the end of my career I will definitely be lifting that silver trophy," said Hunter.
"I was trying my hardest but I suppose the pressure did get to me a bit,” said Hunter.
But unfortunately his life didn’t give him much time, as in March 2005 he was diagnosed with neuroendocrine tumours, and he died from the disease in 2006 just before his 28th
birthday.
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