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Gerard Greene eases past Vinnie Calabrese to set up a meeting with Matthew Stevens at the UK Snooker Championship

Ahead of a second-round clash with Matthew Stevens, Gerard Greene has cast his mind back to remember the last time they met at the UK Snooker Championship.

Over a decade ago at the back end of 2003 Welshman Stevens edged a close opening-round contest against Greene 9-7 before going on to lift the coveted trophy.

Greene set up a rematch of that clash 11 years ago at the Barbican in York this weekend after beating an out-of-sorts Vinnie Calabrese on Wednesday afternoon.

And the 41-year-old believes overturning Stevens on Saturday afternoon could set him up for a run to the business end of this UK Championship in York.

“When he won it, he beat me 9-7 in the first round so I think I owe him one,” said Greene.

“You never know, if I beat him I might go on and win it.

“He hasn’t done great so far but I know he’s a great player. He can just turn it on on the day and blow you away so I’ve just got to play my best game.

“When I’m in the balls I’m feeling good but because I haven’t won that many matches I’m lacking a bit of belief.

“It’s not a great win, but a win’s a win and if I can take something from that, go on and beat Matthew then we’ll see.”

Welshman Stevens beat Allan Taylor 6-2 to reach the second round while Greene knows that in order to see off the former UK champion he will need to improve his own game.

A break of 62 – in the final frame – was the best he could manage against Calabrese with Stevens’ second-frame effort of 132 against Taylor a sign of things to come.

“I didn’t play very well at all,” Greene added. “It was a nervy first-round game – it’s good money and obviously you want to get into the tournament. It wasn’t great, but I got through.

“I think every time [Calabrese] has been drawn in a tournament he has played one of the big boys so, to be fair, I think he had a better chance against me than most of them.

“He didn’t play that well really – he is a lot better than that and you can tell he’s lacking in confidence.

“I think I’m playing alright in practice but when I go to the match, I’m severely lacking in confidence. I’m getting in the balls and making eights when I should be winning frames.

“It’s just nice to have a little run so hopefully I can do that and then I can do anything really.”

*British Eurosport is the Home of Snooker, showing 19 tournaments per season including the World Championship, UK Championship, the Masters and all other ranking events. Available on Sky, Virgin Media & BT TV or online/mobile via eurosportplayer.com #eurosportsnooker

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