Provisional world ranking: 7

Age: 22

World Championship best: Quarter-Final 1998, 1999.

Best ranking event performance: None.

1999/2000 ranking form: British - R3, Grand Prix - R4, UK - RU, China - R5, Welsh - QF, Malta - R2, Thailand - QF, Scottish - QF.

Matthew Stevens has come on in leaps and bounds this season and is improving all the time.

Although he hasn't won any ranking events he has won both the Regal Masters and the prestigious B&H Masters this season.

In the last two years at the Crucible, Matthew has put in impressive performances, losing out in the Quarter-Finals on each occasion.

Matthew has been runner-up in the last two UK Championship finals, and but for a missed black at 8-9 against Mark Williams in the 1999 final he would have forced his fellow Welshman to a deciding frame.

He was a member of the 1999 Nations Cup-winning Welsh team. Nothing seems to phase him. He has taken everything in his stride and it surely only a matter of time before he wins a ranking event.

His manager has banned any talk of world championship success but rule him out at your peril.