SNOOKER/Embassy World Championship: Matthew Stevens did to Ian McCulloch what the Preston left-hander had done to him in their opening session by winning six of their eight frames yesterday to go into this morning's penultimate session of their best-of-33 frames semi-final of the Embassy World Championship, level at 8-8.
Stevens has had his fill of late-stage disappointments here. Beaten 18-16 by his fellow Welshman Mark Williams in the 2000 final from 13-7 up, he lost his 2001 semi to John Higgins 17-15, went down 17-16 to Peter Ebdon in the 2002 semi and, in the same round last year, was beaten 17-15 by the eventual runner-up Graham Dott.
The conventional wisdom may be that experience of the latter stages is an advantage, but if these matches have ended in defeat it often seems to increase the pressure a player feels when his next opportunity arrives.
Stevens came to Sheffield, having fallen at the first fence in 11 of his previous 14 tournaments, although he did reach the Irish Masters final last month before losing 10-8 to Ronnie O'Sullivan.
Nevertheless, his game possesses an innate class and fluidity which he revealed in winning four of the afternoon's first five frames, making breaks of 58, 61 and 62 with McCulloch's 72 accounting for the other.
Both players were ready to commit themselves to any reasonable chance even when failure was likely to lead to a few minutes in the non-striker's chair as decisive efforts of 83 and 64 from Stevens, separated by 99 from McCulloch, saw the gap reduced to a single frame.
McCulloch failed to capitalise fully on two promising chances in the last frame of the day. From 0-38, Stevens made 59 and a couple of visits later crossed the line to parity at 8-8.
Shaun Murphy, like McCulloch a survivor of the qualifying competition, attacked his 6-2 overnight arrears against Peter Ebdon with back-to-back centuries, 138 and 108, and went on to win the session 7-1 to carry a 9-7 lead.
Ebdon's 61 saw him 7-4 but Murphy, largely through his break of 51, won the 42-minute 12th and with clinching breaks of 42, 44, 82 and 92 added the four remaining frames before lunch.
Although Murphy's long pots did not seem laser assisted with the same frequency as they had in his earlier matches, he still sank some important ones and showed impressive cue-ball control. Murphycould have been counted an under-achiever in transforming his talent into results until his three wins in this championship over Chris Small, John Higgins and Steve Davis.
