Steve Davis believes he can rise to the occasion this evening when he takes on John Higgins in the second round of the Betfred.com World Championship.
Victory over Mark King on Tuesday evening meant Davis, 52, became the oldest winner of a Crucible match since Eddie Charlton beat Cliff Thorburn in 1989.
That year's championship saw Davis win his sixth and most recent world title, and Higgins is the man who picked up the trophy last year.
Davis will certainly not be taking a defeatist attitude into the three-session match, scheduled to conclude on Saturday morning.
Davis said: 'I shall be going in to try to win it.
'I've made my mind up, I'm fed up of making up the numbers, so I'm here to try to win, but it's going to be tough against him because he's a hard player.
'Three sessions. Three sessions of granite, that's what I want. Hopefully I can raise my standard a little bit - it can happen that against a great player you play with nothing to lose.'
Davis has not won a major title since 1995, and his last Crucible semi-final appearance came a year prior to that, meaning Higgins - world champion in 1998, 2007 and last year - starts as firm favourite.
If the 34-year-old Scot wins, he could face Neil Robertson in the quarter-finals after the Australian came through a stiff test against Fergal O'Brien.
From a difficult situation at 6-5 up, Robertson pulled clear to win 10-5. It was slow going at times though, with the pair taking an hour and nine minutes to complete the 13th frame.
'I said to someone after the match that it felt like trying to get a piece of chewing gum out of a carpet,' explained Robertson, who reached last year's semi-finals.
'That frame that went on for nearly an hour and 10 minutes was just absolutely unbelievable.'
He added: 'I definitely believe I can do really well this year.'
Robertson meets Martin Gould next.
Two former world champions concluded their first-round showdown last night as Scotland's Graeme Dott beat England's Peter Ebdon 10-5.
The result means Ebdon drops out of the top 16, which he has been a member of since 1994.
Ebdon said: 'I'm bitterly disappointed but also very proud to have been in for so long.'
Dott is also out of the top 16 at present, but will jump back in if he reaches the semi-finals.
He said: 'I need to win another couple of games, and I'm sure Peter has got the right attitude and he'll bounce back.'
China's Ding Junhui crushed Stuart Pettman 10-1, to underline his title credentials, while world number six Ryan Day lost 10-8 to Mark Davis.
Hastings potter Davis is already a world snooker champion - of sorts - having landed the six-reds title earlier in Killarney last December.
He will face Northern Ireland's Mark Allen in the second round.
Glaswegian Stephen Maguire opened up a 6-3 lead over Trowbridge's Stephen Lee, and 2005 champion Shaun Murphy looked in excellent form as he developed an 8-1 advantage over Gerard Greene.
