ANTHONY McGILL almost quit snooker before he had even started.

Scotland's rising star has the world at his feet having booked his place in this year's Betfred World Championship quarter-finals.

He dumped out compatriot and former UK champion Stephen Maguire in Sheffield and caused the upset of the tournament by beating the defending champion Mark Selby.

McGill has smiled his way through his tournament debut but opponents should not mistake his sanguine approach as a weakness. Indeed, the 24-year-old Glaswegian endured some tough assignments in the junior ranks where he was prone to soul searching over whether he had made the right career choice.

"When you are on a roll these things can happen, and you just have to enjoy it and try and keep it going," said McGill.

"But there was a time when I thought it wasn't worth carrying on.

"My dad was involved in it all. He was trying to sort it out, make it better, but it was taking its toll on the family and it wasn't always a lot of fun in the house.

"Snooker is nothing compared to your family so I considered giving up.

"But just as I was thinking about doing that I won a PIOS event, so I knew I'd be on the main tour.

"However, it was horrible turning up to those junior tournaments. Nobody seemed to like anyone and you couldn't enjoy playing in them.

"I'm glad things seem to have been sorted out now and that the juniors today don't have that going on. It wasn't a nice few years.

"So for me to be playing at the Crucible now, well it's a dream come true. I'm just loving every minute of it."

McGill clashes with either former Crucible semi-finalist Joe Perry or 2005 winner Shaun Murphy in the next phase tomorrow, with their best-of-25 frame match due to be concluded on Wednesday evening.

And if the confident potter can beat either of those players he could earn himself a mouth-watering semi-final showdown and the chance to play on the unique one table set-up at snooker's spiritual home.

"It certainly helps when you have 500 or 1000 people looking down on you in that arena, it's really special," added McGill.

"If you get wound up in the Crucible, I can see it would get magnified so staying relaxed is key.

"Maybe you just don't know how good a player you are or how good you can be until you have played here - and this is the benchmark. Can you handle it here?

"I think it seems pretty easy to play well here, it's that good a venue. There is a kind of magic about the place and people just love being here and watching in the crowd.

"I can see how you might crumble, maybe if you started badly and let it get to you, but that is not the way I have felt at all and hopefully that won't happen.

"But I do smile a lot out there during matches. I am not doing it to annoy anyone or get to my opponents, I just find the whole thing funny sometimes.

"It is funny the way it is all panning out for me. Friends and family have normal jobs, mine is playing snooker and people are coming to watch me play and being engrossed.

"I look at people in the crowd sometimes and just think 'This is all a bit weird', and it makes me smile."