Ross Muir says his dream is to win the World Championship but for the time being he is focused on moving up the world rankings.

The 22-year-old Scot has secured his place in the European Masters, which takes place in Belgium later this year, by beating Martin Gould 4-2.

It was quite a scalp for Muir as Gould won the German Masters in 2016 and has also been beaten in two other ranking finals – by Shaun Murphy in the 2011 Players Tour Championship Finals and by John Higgins at the Australian Goldfields Open three years ago.

Muir said: “I was very pleased with how I played against Martin – it was a very professional performance. “He is one of the best players in the world and he’s won a ranking event so to come through was really pleasing.”

Muir will play in the Paul Hunter Classic in Furth, near Nuremburg in Germany, and is looking forward to being involved in the tournament.

“Everyone there is so passionate about snooker, so it is a lot of fun to play in. It’s different to other tournaments. “I just keep working hard to make my game better.

“It’s not all about results – my game is getting better and so are the results – but climbing up the rankings and becoming world champion is the childhood dream.

That is what I want to do in the long-run.” Muir, who won Junior Pot Black in 2009, was the runner-up at the Vienna Open earlier this year when he was beaten 5-4 by Michael Georgiou in the final.

Murphy is 1.30 to beat Fergal O’Brien in the Paul Hunter Classic while Robert Milkins is 1.25 to come out on top against Sanderson Lam.