Ken Doherty believes Mark Allen's fearless snooker sent the right message to anyone who wants to beat Ronnie O'Sullivan, and aired his bemusement at Shaun Murphy's gushing praise for the Rocket.
On Wednesday, former world champion Murphy said, "if you were designing a snooker player, you’d design Ronnie," after the Rocket destroyed Marco Fu in the first round of the Masters.
On Thursday, Antrim man Allen blew the tournament wide open with a stunning 6-1 defeat of O'Sullivan, who was suffering with illness.
Doherty, though, said Allen's approach is exactly how any player should go into a meeting with the mercurial Englishman.
"He is a genius, but he's not infallible, he's not unbeatable," Doherty told RTÉ 2fm's Game On.
"When you go out there you have to think you have a chance.
"You're playing against he best player in the world but they have their off days and if they drop a level, you can beat them.
"If you go out with the attitude the way Shaun Murphy was taking, and I know he's beaten him in the Champion of Champions, but if he keeps having that attitude or keeps talking about Ronnie O'Sullivan like that, then at the big tournaments, the big stages, he's at a minus before he even starts.
"I'd rather be talking about how I played or how good my game is, or how confident I am. You don't want to feed him (by saying) he's great and he's set the bar and he's the best ever.
"It's just the wrong attitude to give. You have to give off the impression that you're up for it, that if the crunch comes that you're ready to take your chance no matter who you're playing.
"You'd never hear Stephen Hendry, if he was in his prime and Ronnie was in the tournament, he wouldn't be waxing lyrical about him. You'd never hear Steve Davis, if he was in his prime, waxing lyrical about Ronnie O'Sullivan, or even Jimmy White. They wouldn't do that. They wouldn't show their hand."
Doherty warned that Allen now faces the difficult challenge of coming back down to earth and focusing on the next match.
After such a spectacular success, the threat of hangover lingers.
"This is a great tournament, a fantastic tournament," Doherty added.
"Mark Allen could win this tournament. There's still a lot of great players, a lot of great champions. It's up for grabs now for anybody.
"It's going to be interesting now how Mark Allen is going to play. He'll get great confidence from playing O'Sullivan but you always have to be aware of the giant-killer in the next round. Can they carry it on? Can they bring themselves back down to earth, keep their feet on the ground and say, 'it's only one match'?
"He's got two other matches to win this tournament."
