Ken Doherty reached the semi-finals of a ranking event for the first time since 2006 - and revealed he nearly quit the game two years ago.
Doherty, the 1997 world champion, produced 'the best clearance of his career' to complete a fantastic 5-3 victory over world number three Mark Selby and move into the final four of the 2011 Australian Snooker Goldfields Open.
However, Doherty admitted he nearly stopped playing snooker after his world ranking dropped to 55th.
"I felt like packing it in at one stage when I never qualified for the Crucible (in 2009), admitted Doherty, who is currently 28th in the world but set to rise after this event.
"I was in qualifying tournaments and only won one match all season and I thought it was the end of the road.”
Doherty now plays Mark Williams, who has also recovered after plummeting down the ranking when he fell to 47th but, after dedicated himself to training, is now the world number one.
Irishman Doherty, a finalist at the Malta Cup in 2006, admitted he had watched Williams turn his career around and felt motivated to do the same.
"He's come back from the depths of despair like me and it shows you can do it, but my recent inspiration has been Darren Clarke winning The Open at the age of 42," said 41-year-old Doherty.
"It was a superb victory over Mark Selby. From 57 behind with only four reds left to win it was my best clearance as a professional. In 20 years I've made some good ones but to close out the match from that position that was the best."
Stuart Bingham won his grudge match with Mark Allen 5-3 to move into the semi-finals of a ranking tournament for the first time.
The two players have not hidden their dislike for each other after Bingham reacted angrily to post-match comments from Allen when they last played - in December 2010 in the quarter-finals of the UK Championship, a match Allen won 9-7.
Allen had taunted Bingham by saying he did not have the bottle to win close matches and repeated the claim in the build-up to this clash at the Bendigo Stadium in Bendigo, Victoria.
However, Bingham, who made breaks of 66, 118, 112 and 96, believed Allen's words had given him extra motivation.
"It didn't upset me, it just gave me more drive," said Bingham. "At the start of the match it showed how much I wanted to do well and that's the worst I've played all week.
"But from 2-1 down I haven't missed a ball and it has gone 65, 100, 100, 90. People say I have no bottle so there you go.
"Mark is a great snooker player and you don't get to be in the top 16 for five years for nothing. Snooker player wise he is up there with the best, but off the table it's another thing.
"It fired me up 1,000 per cent and maybe that hindered me a bit. Once I calmed down I got into the scoring mode and you can see the result.”
Allen admitted the better man won but stood by what he originally said.
"Stuart deserved to win, he played better and scored heavily," said Allen. "I lost it in the first four frames and could've been 3-1 up but Stuart could've made four centuries and that's hard to live with.
"It didn't surprise me because I know what he's capable of. I never said he's not a good player, I just know he's not good under pressure.
"It wasn’t as if I made any lies. I said what other people think but they're too scared to say it.
"I enjoyed this game more and hopefully that's me getting the bug back for practicing more. When I do I know I won't be losing again to people like Stuart."
Shaun Murphy will play Bingham next after defeating Matthew Selt 5-3, while Doherty’s next opponent is Mark Williams, a 5-4 winner over Dominic Dale.
