Mark Williams afforded himself the luxury of a smile after reaching the last eight of the Daily RecordPlayers Championship in Glasgow tonight.
"It's nice to be in the quarter-finals," he said after winning the last three frames to defeat Irish Masters runner-up Mark King 5-4.
"I used to be pleased getting to finals but now I'm just happy with the quarters," added the world number one, whose season went downhill after lifting the LG Cup last October.
"I knew it was going to be a tough match because Mark has beaten some top players recently and he's been playing some of the best snooker of his career.
"But I don't think he had a chance in the last couple of frames and I made a couple of good breaks."
Williams, who now plays Peter Ebdon, his predecessor as world champion, for a place in the semi-finals, added: "My confidence is building - and I want to get as much confidence as I can before I get to Sheffield."
Williams forced the decider with a break of 80 after starting the run with a fluke - before a 49 at the start of the decider paved the way for his second success of the week.
Ebdon knocked out Glaswegian Graeme Dott 5-3 in a a high-quality match laced with controversy.
Dott accused the Irish Masters champion of bullying referee Michaela Tabb during an incident in the fifth frame which gave the world number seven a 3-2 lead.
Ebdon, who recently became a director of the game's governing body, asked the game's only female referee to take a second look when trying to return the pink to its own spot.
Mother-of-one Tabb, fast-tracked to the top group of officials, opted then to put the pink on the brown spot, a move which enabled Ebdon to continue a frame-winning break of 73.
"It looked as though he bullied her," said Dott, who declined to make any official complaint after the match.
Dott drew level at 3-3 with a break of 112 but Ebdon stretched his unbeaten run to seven matches by dominating the closing two frames.
Ebdon said: "I asked Michaela to take a second opinion because I didn't think the pink spotted.
"When she got the ball marker out she would have had to move a red significantly to get the pink back."
Ebdon added: "I have a huge amount of respect for Graeme. He tries for his life and you have to admire those qualities."
The 2002 world champion then called on the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association, to press for a change of legislation which forces players to place their highly prized cues in the holds of planes.