He continued his solid form by reaching the quarter-finals at the Welsh Open, where he qualified by defeating Anthony Hamilton 4–2. He whitewashed number 5 seed Shaun Murphy 4–0 in the last 32, and in the last 16 he beat fellow Welshman and close friend Ryan Day 4–3. Stevens was drawn against John Higgins in the quarter-finals, but was edged out 3–5. Despite these performances, he was still not ranked in the top 16, so did not automatically qualify for the World Championship; in the fifth round of qualifying, he managed to overcome Fergal O'Brien 10–9 on the final black to qualify for the first time since 2008. He was eliminated by Mark Allen in the first round of the main draw, losing four consecutive frames after leading 9–6. He then won the 2011 Championship League, beating Mark Williams 3–1 in the semi-final, and Shaun Murphy 3–1 in the final, to qualify for the Premier League.