HENDRY AND O'SULLIVAN ENTER PTC4...BUT NO DING

Stephen Hendry will face his teenage compatriot Anthony McGill in the opening round of the fourth Players Tour Championship event of the season next month.

Hendry is making his debut in the series having sat out the first three tournaments.

Ronnie O'Sullivan, a quarter-finalist in the first PTC event, also returns and will meet world no.12 Ryan Day in the last 128.

But Ding Junhui has once again not entered and is thus ineligible for the grand finals next March.

Players have to have competed in a minumum of three UK PTC events and three in Europe to be able to qualify for the big money finals.

In the standout ties in PTC4, world champion Neil Robertson faces Malta's Tony Drago, PTC2 winner Mark Selby takes on Zhang Anda, who qualified for the Crucible last season, and Matthew Stevens tackles James Wattana.

I counted 92 professionals in the field, meaning only three - John Higgins is still suspended - have opted out.

TELLY ADDICTS

Hopefully the Barry Hearn revolution will result in some new faces appearing on our TV screens over the coming season.

A television debut is still a huge deal. Players are used to having friends and family supporting them at venues but the chance for wider exposure somehow makes all the hours and hours spent practising worthwhile.

It is proof that what they tell hairdressers, opticians and folk down the pub is actually true: they really are professional snooker players and, to prove it, you can tune in and watch them.

It can, of course, go one of two ways.

Martin Clark made his TV debut at the 1987 International against Dennis Taylor, winner of the World Championship two years earlier and the reigning Wembley Masters champion.

The result: Clark beat Taylor 5-0.

All too common, though, the debutant freezes. And it’s understandable. They’re not used to the cameras, the crowds or the increased pressure placed upon them.

This is particularly true of players who have spent almost all of their careers mired in the qualifiers in claustrophobic cubicles in front of the proverbial one man and his dog (and not always the dog).

The TV arenas take some getting used to, nowhere more than the forbidding Crucible Theatre in Sheffield.

I recall a Scottish professional, John Lardner, playing there one year and remarking afterwards that the TV cameras were so close that they ‘felt like Daleks.’

I seem to remember he was actually exterminated by Stephen Lee.

Ken Doherty told me that the first time he played at the Crucible he spent the first four frames in a daze, looking around the arena, not believing he was there.

Needless to say he went to the interval 4-0 down.

Some players have to wait many years into their professional careers before appearing before the cameras and it hasn’t always been the experience they were hoping for.

In the case of Ken Owers, a journeyman pro of the 1980s, his debut on ITV consisted of one frame in the recorded highlights.

Owers appeared on screen only once: a cutaway of him sat in his chair before the cameras panned back to show his opponent, Neal Foulds, clearing up to beat him.

There’s a good crop of new young professionals who have joined the tour this year. The qualifying set up is a jungle but it was ever thus.

I hope some of them make it through and show the world what they are made of.

Appearing on TV is a source of great pride for players and something that you can always look back on.

That said, Joe Johnson’s kids taped over much of his 1986 world title triumph with ‘He-Man: Masters of the Universe’ so it’s advisable to be careful where you store the recording.

HENDRY ENTERS PAUL HUNTER CLASSIC

Stephen Hendry is among around 70 professionals who have entered the Paul Hunter Classic, the first of six events that comprise the European Players Tour Championship.

The tournament will be staged in Furth, Germany from August 27-29.

Also on the starting list are world champion Neil Robertson, Shaun Murphy, Mark Selby, Ali Carter, Steve Davis, Mark Allen, Mark Williams, Stephen Maguire and Jimmy White.

Ronnie O'Sullivan and Ding Junhui do not feature in the list of entrants but the closing date is not until a week today.

Like the PTC events, the EPTC carries ranking points.

ALL BETS ARE OFF

Steve Davis was only saying what everyone in the snooker world already knew when he revealed in the Daily Star on Sunday that players have for years bet on themselves to lose and bet on high breaks being beaten.

It's called insurance betting. It also happens to be against the rules.

There was a minor scandal in the 1990s when John Spencer, the then WPBSA chairman, was revealed to have done it.

As Davis says, it doesn't mean players were trying to lose. They were just covering themselves against defeat.

Nevertheless, it remains a shady practice open to misinterpretation and Barry Hearn quite rightly wants it stamped out.

Hearn has raised prize money on the circuit by £1m. There is now an opportunity to play more and earn more money.

Players unable to make a living from the game should get another job, not top up their incomes with money won from bookies through losing.

It does not do anything for snooker's image to have players found to be indulging in side bets on their matches - even though most of it has been done in all innocence.

In the last few years a culture has grown up in which a blind eye has been turned to all this. It started when the round robins were introduced for the Grand Prix - something bookies hated - and has ended with the world no.1 being suspended.

Players need to realise that the sport now largely depends on the financial support of the betting industry - just as it once did on tobacco companies.

It does nothing for snooker's prospects to have players dragged into stories about betting.

I know some people find the involvement of betting companies distasteful and would argue it encourages a culture of gambling. Perhaps it's therefore hypocritical to try and clobber players for betting.

Well, the game has been so badly run in the past that snooker has few other options right now.

And the fact is, snooker is one of the most honest sports out there. Players routinely own up to fouls - and not just on TV - and generally maintain an etiquette that has existed for over a century.

As in any sport there are rotten apples - and they must be dealt with.

This is why the culture of small scale betting that goes on behind the scenes has to stop.

Like so many other areas of our sport, the old way of doing things has to change.

ROBERTSON AND DAVIS JOIN PTC LINE-UP

Reigning Betfred.com world champion Neil Robertson and snooker legend Steve Davis will make their debuts in the Players Tour Championship in event 3 next month.

Robertson and Davis are among 88 of 95 eligible professionals to have entered, an increase on the second event.

The Australian plays Liverpool's Allan Taylor in the first round while Davis tackles Kurt Maflin, a Londoner now resident in Norway.

Among the intriguing ties are Jamie Cope v Ken Doherty, Judd Trump v Michael Holt and Dave Harold v Reanne Evans.

Event 3 runs from August 5-7.

FOCUS ON...STEPHEN HENDRY

This season is Stephen Hendry’s 26th as a professional and his 23rd in succession as a member of the elite top 16.

It could also be the campaign that tells us whether his career in the top flight is set to continue or whether his days are numbered.

There is certainly no disgrace in being ranked 11th at the age of 41 but I suspect Stephen doesn’t derive much pleasure from now being a member of the supporting cast after so many years in the starring role.

He is snooker’s greatest ever champion and, like all born winners, wants to keep on winning.

In fact, it’s now five years since his last ranking title and almost four since his last ranking final.

Hendry’s essential problem is that all of the players above him in the rankings have copied how he played in his heyday but they are now playing it better than him.

When Steve Davis began to drop down the list he changed his game and became much more tactical, happy to scrape wins rather than try and pot his opponents off the table.

Hendry has never been a fan of safety play and frames that get drawn out and is still playing the same game as he always did, just with less success.

I know he hates people saying he isn’t as good as he once was but the evidence of the last two years suggests that this is the case.

It is hard for any player to accept this but especially difficult for an all time great.

It took Davis a number of years to come to terms with the fact that Hendry had overtaken him as snooker’s dominant force. When he did he relaxed and did not put himself under pressure trying to force results.

And then, out of nowhere and with little personal expectation, he won the Wembley Masters in 1997.

Since then Davis has put together several memorable performances, defying Old Father Time. He reached the 2004 Welsh Open final, the 2005 UK Championship final and, of course, beat John Higgins in the second round of last season’s Betfred.com World Championship.

In the same tournament Hendry struggled past young Zhang Anda before suffering a heavy defeat to Mark Selby.

His aura of invincibility is now gone. His performances of late have even seen him dropped from the Premier League.

But I think it’s dangerous to write him off completely. Truly great players in any sport have a tendency to, as the old cliché puts it, roll back the years every now and again.

It’s entirely conceivable Hendry could win tournaments in the future but I don’t think he will until he accepts he is no longer as strong a player as he was at his remarkable peak.

What he needs is an injection of self belief. I don’t know if Hendry feels the new Players Tour Championship is beneath him but it is actually an ideal chance to rebuild confidence.

There’s nobody watching, if he loses he can point to the short format but it’s matches against good players and will toughen up his game more than by playing alone in his snooker room.

Furthermore, if he misses many more PTC events his ranking position will suffer and it may be that he will have to go to the Academy in Sheffield – to qualify for tournaments.

In such a scenario, Hendry may prefer a dignified retirement. If that happens he will hang up his cue safe in the knowledge that his career has been more successful than any other player in the modern age.

But I sense he isn’t ready to give up just yet.

ROBERTSON TO PARADE TROPHY AT MCG

Neil Robertson will parade the Betfred.com World Championship trophy at the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground on Saturday before the AFL football match between Collingwood and St. Kilda.

The match is expected to attract a crowd of more than 80,000 spectators.

Robertson, a Collingwood fan, has been busy promoting the game down under off the back of his Crucible triumph, raising hopes of a professional event in Australia.

His appearance on the pitch before the match - as well as a live TV interview at quarter time - will further boost snooker's profile.

Robertson has also met with Bob Hawke, the former Australian prime minister (pictured), who is supporting his nomination for the Australian Sporting Hall of Fame.

Hawke is a patron of the Australia Billiards and Snooker Council.

HEARN ON THE RADIO

Barry Hearn will appear on BBC Radio 5 Live tonight from 9.30pm to talk about his ongoing plans for snooker.

He has already teased the possibility of a World Cup, which is long overdue.

The old World Team Cup was played over four days featuring just eight teams but the World Cup staged in Bangkok in 1996 was a proper international event.

Needless to say it hasn't been staged since.

The Nations Cup was a poor imitation in comparison and has not been staged since 2001.

Snooker is an individual sport but team snooker is a staple of leagues and would create a different atmosphere.

The four UK home nations could be joined by the Republic of Ireland, China, Thailand, Australia, Belgium, Germany, Brazil and various other outposts. The game is played by amateurs in more countries than ever.

Hearn has a number of announcements to come, including broadcast deals and new innovations.

They won't all be introduced this season but the game is now going forward after many years of stagnation.

FOCUS ON...MARK WILLIAMS

One of the most welcome things to happen last season was the return to form of Mark Williams.

Having returned to the elite top 16 in 2009 he is now back in the top eight and has already won the campaign’s first PTC title.

Only a stellar Ronnie O’Sullivan performance could deny him a place in last season’s Wembley Masters final and it was another superb O’Sullivan display that cost him a place in the Crucible quarter-finals.

In between Williams reminded everyone just how good he can be by winning the China Open, his first ranking title since 2006.

The key to Mark’s success has always been his laid back attitude. He gives the impression that nothing much bothers him most of the time.

In his period in the doldrums he had various off table pressures that meant he was no longer happy-go-lucky.

There was also, perhaps subconsciously, the notion that after completing the grand slam of all four BBC tournaments and occupying the world no.1 position in 2003 he no longer had anything to achieve.

Williams won’t have enjoyed having to qualify during the 2008/09 season but in the long run it has done him good.

He also now has his own snooker club and seems to be back in the groove generally.

Time is against him. At 35 he is now considered to be on the back nine of his career but, as he proved last season, he is still capable of deadly performances.

His strength was always his single ball potting, forcing his way into frames. He can scrap it out and his temperament is rock solid. It makes for a highly effective game when it all comes together.

I spoke to Mark briefly at PTC 2 and he seems to be as enthusiastic as ever about his snooker. He was a big supporter of Barry Hearn prior to the EGM and is relishing the increased playing opportunities that are ahead of the players, not just this season but in the years to come.

Williams, at his best, was the sort of player you would pick to play a frame if your life depended on it.

Regardless of the problems he’s had in recent times, he is getting back to that sort of level and there’s no obvious reason why more silverware shouldn’t be heading his way this season.

THE JOY OF SIX

Mark Williams, Mark Selby, Jamie Cope, Ken Doherty, Peter Ebdon and former winners Ricky Walden and Jimmy White are among the players taking part in the Sangsom Six Reds World Championship in Bangkok, Thailand next week.

Hang on, I hear you holler. Wasn’t there a World Championship in Killarney just before Christmas?

Yes, there was, but this is a different event. It was called the World Grand Prix last year but is now being billed as a World Championship.

There is no governing body for six reds snooker so they can call it what they want but it seems to be unnecessarily confusing.

Thailand was once a hotbed of snooker. Its popularity declined along with the career of its best ever player, one time world no.3 James Wattana.

Any event featuring top players should be welcomed and the Six Reds tournament will be covered on national TV.

The truth is, though, that six reds snooker has not taken off in any meaningful way. It doesn’t feature at all in Barry Hearn’s future plans and has no profile outside of these two World Championships (I understand the Irish one is returning later this year).

My view of it remains unchanged: it’s fine as a sideshow but will never overtake the established form of the game. Then again, it was never meant to. It’s just a variant of snooker.

Events such as this give the players more opportunities and I’m all for that as well as the coverage the game will get in Asia.

Having two world champions is a little daft, though.

There's more information on the Thai event on the tournament website here.

FOCUS ON...DING JUNHUI

Ding Junhui’s season was one of much improvement after a couple of disappointing years.

Of the six world ranking titles contested he appeared in three finals, winning a gripping UK Championship battle against John Higgins.

However, the campaign ended in a second round defeat at the Crucible to Shaun Murphy. This in itself was no disgrace but Ding is still yet to appear in a World Championship quarter-final.

He did little wrong against an inspired Mark Williams in the second session of the China Open final and, from what I’m told, hardly made a mistake from 8-2 up to Murphy in the Wuxi Classic final, which he eventually lost 9-8.

Ding has defied the dire predictions that he had peaked as a teenager and would not settle down as a top player. It was easy – and forgivable – to expect much more of him considering his golden 18-month spell from March 2005 when he won the China Open, UK Championship and Northern Ireland Trophy.

Back then, he looked like a certain top four player and possible world champion. Neither of these has happened yet but, at 23, he still has plenty of time to add to his achievements.

Of course, he suffered that confidence-sapping drubbing to Ronnie O’Sullivan in the 2007 Masters final and had to deal with the expectations heaped on him by the largest country on the planet.

These have been eased by the emergence of Liang Wenbo, whose rise up the rankings may also have created a rivalry that has helped spur Ding on.

He seemed happier last season in general. Moving from his home to live in the UK was not easy but he appears to have settled now.

One change this season is his practice base. The World Snooker Academy is now a qualifying centre so Ding has had to find somewhere else, but I understand his manager is setting up a new facility in Sheffield so this won’t be such a seismic shift.

Ding starts the new season fifth in the rankings, his highest ever position. He started the campaign just gone struggling to stay in the top 16 so this represents a vast effort.

He remains a rather shy young man not entirely comfortable with the spotlight. People are made differently. It’s easy to say a sportsman should be this, that or the other but ultimately people are who they are.

Ding gets criticised because often in the arena he looks thoroughly fed up.

So what if he does? I’ve never understood the juvenile demand that players should ‘smile more.’ What if there’s nothing to smile about?

And how many top sportsmen or women go about with fixed rictus grins on their faces when they are trying to concentrate on playing their chosen game to the best of their ability?

He inevitably has people fussing around him trying to market him in a certain way or telling him how to behave. My advice is simple: let Ding be Ding.

Let him concentrate primarily on what he has loved doing since he first came across the game as a ten year-old on the table outside his family home: playing snooker.

This is what fascinates him. This is what inspires him. This is what he is really good at.

FOCUS ON...MARK SELBY

Mark Selby won one of the matches of last season when he once again demonstrated his ability to deal with pressure in high stakes situations.

Selby’s recovery from 9-6 down to beat Ronnie O’Sullivan 10-9 and land a second Wembley Masters title was proof of his big match temperament.

A second comeback against O’Sullivan in the Crucible quarter-finals a couple of months later further enhanced this reputation.

Selby’s problem isn’t the big occasions. Quite the opposite, in fact: he seems to struggle in earlier rounds, which helps to explain why, for a second successive season, he went down the rankings.

Two years ago the Leicester man was the world no.4. He slipped to seventh and is now ninth.

The new rankings system affords him the chance to rise up quicker than before but if he endures the same start to the current campaign as he did to the one just gone he’ll continue his slide.

Then again, here are the six players he lost to in ranking events last season: Stuart Bingham, Ken Doherty, O’Sullivan, John Higgins, Ding Junhui and Graeme Dott. No shame in any of those defeats.

Also, he suffered from the Bahrain Championship fiasco of 2008 but – and isn’t it funny how things turn out? – he will end up benefiting from it because when the points come to be dropped later in the year he won’t have any to lose.

But why is it he still only has one ranking title to his name? Well, the obvious reason is that there have been so few of late and the standard is such that winning one is an achievement in itself.

Even so, there is currently a gap between his reputation with his fellow players – they regard him as one of the very best of the current era – and his record of achievement in ranking events.

I’m certain this will change and it will probably change this season. I believe Selby is a good enough player to be world champion.

Furthermore, I don’t believe he merits the criticism he sometimes gets for being slow. He isn’t slow. If you think he is, dig out a video of some of snooker’s proper grinders from years gone by.

He was perfectly comfortable with the 25 second per shot time limit in the Premier League two years ago, where he reached the final, and was unlucky not to be invited back last season. He’s in it this year and must be a big favourite to reach the play-offs because, again, the tournament has a big match feel to it due to the crowds and general atmosphere.

Selby may have employed a tactical game to his benefit at times. So what? Why shouldn’t he? It’s a perfectly acceptable game plan to play to your own strengths rather than those of your opponent.

The point is, he can switch between attack and defence with deadly effect in a similar vein to Higgins.

His break-building skills are evident for all to see. He has twice compiled five centuries in a match at the Crucible. The only others players to do this more than once are Stephen Hendry, Higgins and O’Sullivan.

In winning the PTC event yesterday he made a total of eight century breaks.

Off table, Mark is a normal, down to earth guy without pretensions. As far as I’m aware he is obliging with fans when it comes to autographs and pictures.

He makes an effort to promote himself and is - unbelievably - the only top player who regularly writes a blog for his official website (although O'Sullivan has started one in Chinese for Sohu.com).

Like most players, Selby just wants to play and, despite all the ‘Jester from Leicester’ stuff, wants to win.

I’d be amazed if he wasn’t winning major silverware this season.

SELBY PINCHES PTC TITLE

Mark Selby (pictured left with WPBSA Tournament Director Mike Ganley) came from 3-1 down to beat Barry Pinches 4-3 and win the second Players Tour Championship title of the season in Sheffield tonight.

Selby, the world no.9, won the opening frame but sat out breaks of 72, 79 and 95 as Pinches threatened an upset.

But Pinches scored only eight further points in the match and Selby finished off with back-to-back centuries of 133 and 116.

I'll be profiling Selby and his prospects this season tomorrow.

THE SNOOKER FACTORY

So I’ve been at the second event of the Players Tour Championship in Sheffield today.

The first thing I saw walking into the English Institute of Sport was a youth in a comedy fat suit wearing a bright red wig and oversized glasses that made Dennis Taylor look like Martin Gould.

I wondered idly if Barry Hearn’s critics had it right and snooker’s new boss really was dumbing down the game.

But it turned out to be part of a school sports day which, for reasons unknown, was conducted largely in fancy dress.

Away from the blaring music and a starting pistol so loud it made me briefly wonder if an unhappy blog reader had decided to take their revenge, snooker’s great, good, not quite so good and downright unknown were locked in endless battle.

Play started at 9am, proof that such a time does exist for snooker players. It’s the sort of event where egos should be left at the door. If your table isn’t free you have to wait. No point complaining, no point remonstrating.

This is a roll up your sleeves and get on with the job era, very much in Hearn’s own image.

The opportunity to play has been created, it’s up to the players whether to embrace it or not.

Most of them have – 81 out of 95 professionals entered this event – and seem to be enjoying the chance to play for more money, ranking points and opportunities to keep their games sharp.

And it’s relentless. Pretty much the moment a table becomes free it is brushed and then the next match is on.

These events would soon collapse into chaos were it not for the experienced hand of the WPBSA’s ground staff, in particular tournament directors Mike Ganley and Martin Clark.

They need to be across everything and are – MBEs have been handed out for less.

This series will develop and grow. I suspect different venues will be found in time so that players don’t need to have their post redirected to Sheffield.

The new worldsnooker.com live scoring system, when it is launched, will be a vast improvement on the old version and help fans follow matches ball by ball. Streaming is also on the cards but these things don’t happen overnight.

It’s nice to come to a tournament and find so many people in a good mood. Most here seem to be looking to the future, even those players who were sceptical of Hearn’s plans.

As Fergal O’Brien put it: “It’s a clean slate. We’re starting again. Snooker players are supposed to play snooker and that’s what we’re doing now.”

And there’s plenty of snooker to play as the season unfolds.

FOCUS ON...RONNIE O'SULLIVAN

Love him or hate him – and plenty seem to do either – Ronnie O’Sullivan is snooker’s greatest gift.

He is the only player who can regularly command a full house and the only one outside of those associated with the ‘golden era’ of the 1980s who attracts the interest of the wider media.

At 34, O’Sullivan is approaching veteran status but it would take an extraordinary collapse in form to see him end the season much below where he is now.

Last season he won only one title, the Shanghai Masters. He was beaten by John Higgins in three other ranking events and by Mark Selby in the Masters final and World Championship quarter-finals. Shaun Murphy beat him in the Premier League final while the manner of his exit from the China Open was not exactly his finest hour.

Overall, this wasn’t a bad campaign but Ronnie is no longer world no.1, neither is he world champion.

His future fortunes may well depend on the extent to which he embraces the Barry Hearn revolution.

It was O’Sullivan who set the ball rolling at the 2009 Masters with his very public appeal for snooker to open itself up to entrepreneurship and shake some life into a sport may felt had gone stale.

O’Sullivan has a very good relationship with Hearn. He has said the promoter ‘was like a dad to me’ when he managed him as a teenager.

When Hearn called him a ‘miserable bastard’ he took it as it was meant: as a bit of banter between a couple of mates.

The new formats for the World Open and Sky Shootout are likely to excite Ronnie more than the run of the mill ranking events he’s been playing in for nearly two decades. They will be something different, a new experience, something he usually likes.

He has already played in one Players Tour Championship event – although he hasn’t entered the second one – and has a full calendar of tournaments to keep him going if he wants them.

But analysing O’Sullivan is not a job I or most others are qualified to do. He remains a complex soul: a mass of contradictions who tests the patience even of those who idolise him.

His search for perfection on the table is fruitless. He will never find it, at least not over a sustained period.

Snooker, to put it crudely, is a bloody hard game and even a player blessed with the mercurial talents of O’Sullivan can’t win everything, neither can they play brilliantly all the time.

It seems that Ronnie’s performances these days depend largely on who he is playing.

Two of his best displays last season came against Mark Williams, first at the Masters and then at the World Championship. Williams is a player he grew up with and one who he greatly respects.

In both events he then lost to Selby, whose reliance on defence as well as attack – a perfectly reasonable approach – seems to frustrate him greatly.

I think most players would still regard O’Sullivan as the best player on the circuit. He probably wouldn’t and therein lies the central paradox of his career.

Everyone can see how frighteningly good he is apart from Ronnie O’Sullivan himself.

Maybe he’s right and we’re all wrong. Or maybe he should stop chasing perfection and just be satisfied with being, at his best, the best.

FOCUS ON...NEIL ROBERTSON

New world champions have much to get used to.

There’s the higher profile, the increased expectation – from media, fans, fellow players and, perhaps most crucially, themselves – and a greater number of off table commitments.

Joe Johnson once told me that after he won the world title in 1986 he would have photographers waiting for him when he got off the plane on his holiday.

Snooker doesn’t command such an interest in the media now but Neil Robertson is still going to have to adjust to the various demands on his time and scrutiny of his performances.

You can just imagine some of the comments if he makes a bad start to the new season.

What will stand him in good stead is his inner steel, which he has demonstrated time and time again.

Robertson has appeared in five ranking tournament finals and won them all, an admirable record. The way to silence any doubters there may be is to keep on winning: no player can do more than that.

After a couple of unsuccessful attempts at a pro career while still very young, Robertson returned to the circuit in 2003, set up camp in Cambridge and has impressed ever since.

Winning the world title was reward for all the sacrifices he has made and will have to continue to make. Fatherhood complicates the issue too – albeit in a happy way – and it will be interesting to see what sort of Neil Robertson returns to the UK for the new campaign.

How hungry will he be for further silverware? How determined will he be to press on from this and cement a place among the all time greats?

Snooker has a low media profile in Australia but it has risen considerably since his Crucible triumph and he has been doing his his bit with media appearances. Fingers crossed it can translate into a professional event there.

Neil is good for the game. Having an Australian world champion is a boost to snooker’s global aspirations, he has a clean cut image and plays in an attractive way. He shows his personality in the arena and is honest and direct in media interviews. His charisma is real, not constructed.

His victory in Sheffield was partly overshadowed by the John Higgins scandal and what became a poor final but all that matters is that his name is on the one trophy that means more than all the rest put together.

It will always be there. He will always have the memories of his celebrations in the arena with his mother who had flown from the other side of the world to share the moment.

But it is to the future to which Robertson should now look.

Some world champions have enjoyed continual success in the season that followed their win – Steve Davis, Stephen Hendry, Higgins and John Parrott being examples.

Others – Johnson, Peter Ebdon and Shaun Murphy – found it harder going.

Much will depend on how much time Robertson actually has to get his head down and work on his game. I’d imagine he hasn’t spent much – if any time – practising since winning the world title but any rustiness will soon be exposed when he returns to action.

Then there’s the question of what he himself is expecting to happen this year. What goals will he set himself – the top the rankings? To win a certain number of tournaments? To retain the world title?

It might be better not to set targets at all. Few wanted to draw him before, even fewer will want to do so now.

Robertson is a positive sort of guy and will almost certainly look not at the pitfalls and what can go wrong in his year as world champion but just revel in the experience of being introduced as such.

What better feeling can there be in snooker?

He may go on to win more world titles, he may never win another.

In the meantime, he should enjoy the feeling while it lasts.

FOCUS ON...SHAUN MURPHY

Shaun Murphy has been world champion, UK champion and is a player often tipped to win titles based on his professional approach to tournaments as well as his rock solid game.

All this said, it’s worth pointing out that he only has three ranking titles to his name.

I say ‘only’ – this is a little unfair. It’s not as if they come along every week. He has also won three invitation titles. Even so, it’s a lower return than might have been expected after Murphy’s sensational capture of the world title in 2005.

To come through the pack like he did was a surprise but that he would make it at the top level was not for anyone who had known Shaun since he was young.

His entire focus as a boy was to make it as a professional. When he first appeared at the Crucible he said it was his ambition to one day be mentioned in the same breath as Steve Davis and Stephen Hendry.

Some journalists – no doubt I was one of them – wondered if this teenager had ideas above his station. But although he hasn’t achieved the domination Davis and Hendry did in their respective heydays, Murphy is what all the many thousands of pros, wannabe pros and young amateurs have dreamt of being: world champion.

To produce the standard of snooker he did on the game’s greatest stage against much more experienced opponents was one of the great achievements of the last decade, indeed of any decade.

He lost 17-16 to Mark Selby in the semi-finals in 2007, 18-9 in the final to John Higgins in 2009 and 13-12 to Ali Carter in the quarter-finals last season.

I’d fancy Murphy to be there or there abouts at the Crucible for the next few years.

Last season, he dropped four places down the rankings to seventh.

In truth, though, there’s far too much focus on the rankings at the top end. What difference does it make whether a player is fifth or sixth or seventh? Who cares?

Of course, dropping out of the top four makes a difference in seedings but when the top players meet it’s all on the day. Murphy doesn’t suddenly become a heavy second favourite against, say, Neil Robertson just because he’s now below him on the list.

Dropping out of the top four may, however, be a psychological setback. Players want to keep on the up and up but Murphy has slipped back. The good news, though, is that with the new ranking system he can bounce back straightaway instead of having to wait a whole season.

And as he didn’t win a match in any of the 2008 Northern Ireland Trophy, Shanghai Masters and Grand Prix there won’t be many points to come off when the list is revised in October.

Murphy has always given the impression of being a wise head on young shoulders but off table pressures – the break up of his marriage and subsequent relocation to Sale – clearly had an impact on his form.

He isn’t everyone’s cup of tea (who is?) but from what I’ve seen he’s always been a good pro: signing autographs, chatting to fans, posing for photographs.

In his year as world champion he was always available for media interviews and willing to promote his sport.

There have been well documented (very well in some cases) incidents in the arena where his opponents have not always been enamoured by Murphy. He isn’t alone in this and, of course, there’s no taking back what has happened once it’s happened.

Some people still bang the drum that there are no ‘characters’ (without ever defining what they actually mean by that term) but I’d say Murphy is a fascinating character.

Socially, he is one of the easiest players to chat to. He’s friendly and laidback and yet seems to wind a lot of snooker fans up.

Perhaps they regard his persona is insincere. Knowing Shaun, I don’t believe it is but I also like a bit of tribalism in sport: heroes and villains, as in any drama, is what keeps people coming back for more.

Murphy turns 28 this year, not young in snooker terms but not old either.

The next five years or so is where you would expect him to enjoy the majority of his success.

He remains one of the few players in the game I would be wary of betting against but his consistency seems to have declined in the last couple of seasons – he has lost some matches in this period that few would have predicted – and that is what he will be looking to recapture in the new campaign.

That and titles: the ultimate measure of a snooker player.

FOCUS ON...ALI CARTER

Over the next couple of weeks I will be writing a series of posts about some of the game’s leading players, focusing on their careers, personalities and future prospects.

This first one looks at Ali Carter, a player who has realised his promise in recent seasons.

Carter first came to prominence at the 1999 Grand Prix when he beat Stephen Hendry en route to the semi-finals.

At the time this seemed like a significant breakthrough. It was a BBC event and Hendry was reigning world champion and had won the first two titles of the season.

Carter was a relative newbie but didn’t lack for self confidence and soon carved out a reputation for beating a string of established names.

But he would also develop one, whether fairly or not, for losing close matches. There was one glaring miss on a yellow against Hendry in the UK Championship and other tight contests that went against him.

However, he was also suffering from Crohn’s disease, a condition that obviously affected his performances and caused immeasurable concern for one so young.

All of the above combined to raise the question of whether he would ever live up to his early success.

Carter had been on the WPBSA’s Young Player of Distinction scheme with Shaun Murphy and Stephen Maguire but found that they were experiencing success while he had been slightly left behind.

I well recall asking Ali in a press conference at the 2005 UK Championship whether, in the light of Murphy’s world title success and Maguire’s UK triumph, he felt under pressure to emulate them.

He said that, as far as he was concerned, they weren’t better players than him and there was therefore no reason why he shouldn’t start lifting trophies.

I tended to agree that he had the game but it still remained to be seen whether he had the mental strength. In the season’s that followed he proved that he did.

Carter’s journey from the nearly man ranks to that of tournament winner began at the 2008 Championship League.

This is a popular event with the players as it affords top quality match practice with financial reward and the chance to get into the lucrative Premier League.

It was even more popular with Carter who lived only a couple of miles from the venue and he played dozens of matches without quite winning one of the groups. By appearing in all of them, though, he earned over £20,000.

More importantly, he toughened up his game on a circuit where playing opportunities seemed to be dwindling.

It was noticeable too, even in the prosaic surroundings of Crondon Park Golf Club, just how much Carter hated losing. More than once he would be berating himself as he sped away following another near failure to win a group.

But he went to the Crucible two years ago match fit and so it was that he carved out a path to the final.

It had been exhausting, especially as he wasn’t used to the rigours of the 17 day marathon. He battled long on the final Saturday to put away Joe Perry 17-15 whereas his opponent in the final, Ronnie O’Sullivan, had had the whole day off having beaten Hendry with a session to spare.

O’Sullivan would beat Carter 18-8 in the final. It was a disappointing end to the journey but there were many positives to take from the experience - not least his magnificent 147, complete with a less than straightforward final black under pressure - and take them he did, soon developing into a model of consistency.

He has appeared in at least the semi-finals eight times in the last 15 ranking tournaments, which has helped him join the top four.

In this period Carter won a maiden ranking title, the 2009 Welsh Open.

His performance in the last session against Joe Swail, when he won all six frames played, was simply superb. Carter proved he was capable of raising his game at the most important phase of the tournament.

He returned to the final last season but was blown away by an on form John Higgins. His challenge at the Crucible ultimately wilted in the semi-finals, partly because he was emotionally spent after his defeat of Shaun Murphy the previous evening and, of course, because of Neil Robertson’s superior play.

I’d be surprised if there weren’t more titles for Carter. After a few false starts he has managed to ally his self confidence to his game and find the winning formula.

I also think it helps him that he has off table interests that take up much of his time. He runs a snooker club in Chelmsford and is a qualified airline pilot. Such activities mean he is not constantly fretting about form, results and ranking.

Carter this week makes his debut in the Players Tour Championship. Like most players he will feel odd playing competitively in early July but he is the sort to grab at opportunities and make the best of them.

The challenge is to win more titles, no easy task with the game so competitive. I'm sure Ali himself would agree that while consistency is encouraging, you don't get put in the Hall of Fame (not that there is one) for reaching semi-finals. It's all about silverware and he'll be hungry for more.

It’s been a long road but Ali Carter is now one of the best players in the world, the result of dedication, self belief and, of course, his considerable talent.

And as the sport finally starts to sort itself out, he is well placed to capitalise.

*Note: as I have other commitments this week it may take several hours for your comments to appear

UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL

Watching snooker on TV is, of course, a productive use of anyone’s time but every fan should try – if only once – to experience the game live.

The first time I went to the Crucible I almost felt let down. I simply couldn’t believe that this tiny theatre could be the same venue I’d been watching on the goggle box all those years.

But there is no substitute for being there.

Although the cameras add to the claustrophobia and feeling that there’s no place to hide for the players, you are at the mercy of the TV director if watching at home.

Watching in the arena enables you to direct the pictures yourself. You can witness, up close, the talent, the great play and, most fun of all, the psychological breakdowns.

Years ago I saw John Virgo play. He lost all four frames before the interval and, shortly after he’d returned to his dressing room, a light bulb somewhere in the arena popped loudly, leading a spectator to call out ‘Virgo’s shot himself!’

All right, it’s not exactly the Parrot Sketch but this is how we made our entertainment before the internet.

Ah, yes, the internet. Humanity took its time but it finally discovered a new way of screwing even more money out of people.

There are various websites offering snooker tickets and almost all of them are rip-off merchants.

Here’s one already selling tickets for next year’s World Championship – which are yet to even go on sale.

World Snooker has a deal with See Tickets for UK-based tournaments. All the other sites claiming to sell tickets – usually for well over the odds – should be avoided.

Or to put it another way: do not, do not, DO NOT buy tickets from them.

Or from eBay for that matter. As World Snooker make clear: "tickets bought from unauthorised sources may not be valid and admission to the event will not be permitted."

Of course, even ‘official’ ticket sellers have to have their cut and so it is that ‘booking fees’ and ‘transaction fees’ apply.

I’ve had a number of emails from people who believe these are unfair as they are paying a fair whack for the tickets in the first place.

Most people don’t live next door to a snooker venue. They have to pay to travel. They have to pay to feed and water themselves. They may even wish to purchase a copy of Snooker Scene.

In these tough economic times, half empty arenas are not necessarily a comment in the health of snooker but a reflection on the fact that some people don’t regard the tournament experience as value for money.

And See Tickets may well be a reputable organisation but the fact is when you attempt to buy tickets for the World Open you are directed to a page advertising the format for a completely different tournament – the World Seniors Championship, played not in Glasgow but Bradford.

This strikes me as something that could confuse potential attendees of the new event.

And the game needs them. There’s nothing worse for a player than turning up to find a mere handful of spectators. It means there’s no atmosphere and doesn’t feel as important as it should.

It also looks horrible on the TV to see banks of seats with nobody in them.

In a way this is snooker’s own fault. It is such an easy, intimate sport to watch on TV that many people have no intention of ever going anywhere near a venue.

But it’s worth doing not least because TV doesn’t really capture the skill on show to anything like the same degree as being there does.

Plus you might get on the telly yourself.

INCREASED ENTRY FOR PTC

Shaun Murphy will play Peter Ebdon in the first round of the second Players Tour Championship event on July 9.

There’s no protection for players in the PTC depending on where they’re officially ranked. Each tournament from now on is seeded based on the independent order of merit, hence Mark Williams is at the top of the draw where he faces Michael Holt, who is ranked 24th but lost in the first round of PTC event 1.

After the inevitable teething problems of the first event, the WPBSA has made some changes that should hopefully prevent a repetition of the 3am finish that occurred last week.

Four matches in the last 128 will be played on the qualifying day, scheduled sessions are now two hours long rather than 90 minutes and play will start an hour earlier at 9am.

But most crucially the tournament director now has it in his discretion to start matches earlier than the ‘not before’ time if a table is free and both players are happy to play.

This is eminently sensible and should ensure less of a logjam, although as I said the other day: the length of snooker matches can only ever be estimated.

This new tour was always going to be trial and error but it’s noticeable that entries are up on the first tournament, which proves that the players have welcomed Barry Hearn’s first significant innovation since taking control of World Snooker.

Event 1 attracted 73 members of the main tour. Event 2 has seen 81 enter plus 83 amateurs meaning a field of 164 compared to 148 for the inaugural tournament.

The players are getting what they asked for in the shape of more opportunities. In turn, most of them are embracing the chances they are being given.

It makes all the ballyhoo surrounding Hearn’s ascension seem even more ridiculous. What his tenure has so far delivered is what everyone wanted in the first place: more snooker.