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Biography:
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Having been a very
successful junior, Matthew began his professional career a
month or so before his 17th birthday. Although he had some
good wins in the qualifiers, he did not reach the latter
stages of any ranking event but did get to the semi-final of
the Benson & Hedges championship. A year later he won that
event which gave him a wild-card into the Masters at Wembley.
There he beat his friend and mentor, Terry Griffiths before
losing to Alan McManus in the second round. He also has some
success on the ranking circuit with several last-64 places and
a last-16 in the Grand Prix. As a result his ranking leapt
from 236 to 67.
1996/97 was less successful with just two last-32 finishes but
in the following season he reached the semi-final of both the
Grand Prix and the UK and ended with a quarter-final in his
debut at the Crucible. That catapulted him into the top 32 and
a year later he was up to number 9. This followed a season in
which he reached his first ranking final in the UK
Championship and got to the world quarter-final again.
1999/2000 was, by far, Matthew's best season to date. He began
by winning his first major title in the Scottish Masters and
was runner-up again in the UK Championship. There were
quarter-finals in the Welsh and Scottish Opens as well as the
Thailand Masters but his biggest prize came when he defeated
Ken Doherty to in the coveted Benson & Hedges Masters. He was
one of the favourites to take the world title and he did go
all the way to the final. Fellow Welshman, Mark Williams,
however staged a great comeback and Matthew had to be content
with runner-up.
He was now up to number six and great things were predicted
for him. The sad death of his father Morrell, who had been a
constant companion on the circuit, affected him badly but he
still reached three ranking quarter finals and the world
semi-final and maintained his sixth place in the rankings. The
2001/2 season saw him reach the world semi-finals again which
meant than, in five appearances he has one final, two semis
and two quarter-finals to his credit. His record in the UK is
almost as impressive with two finals, one semi and one quarter
in the last five years. Other results were a little
inconsistent and his ranking fell a couple of places.
2002/03 was his worst season for some time as he only got past
the last 16 in one events. Surprisingly he only dropped one
place to ninth but will start the next season in provisional
12th with work to do to avoid a further slide down the list.
In 2003 Matthew eventually realised his ambition of winning a
ranking tournament, when he beat Stephen Hendry in a dramatic
UK Championship final.
But that win was the only
highlight in a poor run of results, until 2005 when he battled
his way through to the final of the World Championship, losing
narrowly to Shaun Murphy. That result and a final placing in
the Irish Masters helped him up to his best ever ranking
position and he'll start the 2005-6 campaign as World No. 4.
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Achievements:
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1998: One of three Welsh players to set a new World record:
Three
147 breaks in a one day tournament - The Buckleys Best Bitter
Snooker Challenge
World Professional Championship runner-up 2000, 2005
Irish Masters runner-up
2005
Masters champion 2000
Scottish Masters champion 1999
UK Champion 2003
UK Championship runner-up 1998, 1999
Grand Prix semi-finalist 1997
Thailand Masters semi-finalist 2002
Nations Cup winner 1999 (Welsh Team)
B&H Championship winner 1995
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