CHRIS MASON admits that his challenge to regain a place in the top 16 has been boosted by his form in the past fortnight.
Mason has won the West Tyrone Open and Budweiser UK Open Regional Final in the last two weeks to gain his first tournament victories of 2006.
He is now ranked 17th in the world, and admits that he is desperate to regain his place among the sport's elite.
"I think I'm a top 16 player," said Mason. "There are some fantastic players in the top 16 and I don't particularly feel that I have a right to be in there.
"I understand how tough it is - that top 16 in the world at the moment is second to none, fantastic, and even winning tournaments like the Regional Final can't put me there.
"The last eight in London (last weekend) was as strong as the last eight in Newcastle, when I last made the quarter-finals.
"I would doubt that any game had under a 95 average from anybody. It was a fantastic standard and a credit to the game."
Mason defeated Barrie Bates in Sunday's final, and had seen off Adrian Lewis and Bob Anderson earlier that day and counted Alan Warriner-Little among his scalps on Saturday.
He added: "I feel a bit like Colin Lloyd with back-to-back wins!
"I'm really chuffed, I've put a lot of hard work in and probably not got as much out of it over the years as I deserve.
"But there were a few occasions on Sunday when it could have gone a bit wrong - Adrian Lewis' 139 to stay in the match was phenomenal, as was a 144 from Barrie in the final - but I keep turning it on.
"Sometimes I see people playing as well as I did and they walk home, whereas I'm still having to battle and I feel a little bit aggrieved that I have to play even better than I am to win, because I'm playing as well as anybody.
"The weekend in West Tyrone was a great weekend, and I'm especially proud of myself for the weekend in London.
"I answered the questions to every bit of adversity during the weekend.
"Maybe I'm a late developer, and it's going to take a little bit longer than most players to blossom, but hopefully this is the start of things to come.
"This event is massive for me. We had some of the best players in the world in this event, and I had a bit of luck and a bit of form and I've managed to come out the winner.
"Players rarely seem to miss against me, and it happened again in London but I found another dimension and managed to push to force errors.
"Every opportunity I got I took out, and I'm really proud of myself because it was so tough."
Mason has yet to capture a major title, but he is confident of breaking that statistic in 2006.
"I'm going to win a TV tournament this year, and if it doesn't happen I'll have some egg on my face," he said.
"I've been playing in TV tournaments for over ten years and haven't won one, but if I get a bit of luck, everything clicks and I'm right, I will probably win a TV tournament this year, or at least in the next 18 months."