Barry Hearn predicted in advance that the inaugural World Open at the Glasgow SECC would demonstrate the breath of fresh air sweeping through snooker and even if the shy and retiring - not! - Englishman could probably have done without the controversy which engulfed Ronnie O'Sullivan during the tournament, Neil Robertson's emphatic victory in the final was the clearest sign of good times returning to the green baize.

Alright, the sport might never replicate the days when 18 million people witnessed the World Championship final between Steve Davis and the eventual victor, Dennis Taylor, in 1985, but there are plenty of signs that it is emerging from its slough of despond, both on and off the table. John Higgins may have escaped with a six-month ban, following the allegations of match-fixing, made against the 35 year-old Scot, but whatever he and the likes of O'Sullivan, Peter Ebdon and Mark Williams do in the rest of their careers, a new cast of whizz-bang potting maestros, talents such as Robertson, Judd Trump, the teenage Scot, Anthony McGill, and a plethora of Asian and European wunderkinder, are ready to exhibit their cue-wielding skills while moving to the front of the queue.
   
Better still, there will be a wide range of formats, designed to showcase the disparate talents of the game's leading personalities. In advance of the World Open, several of the participants voiced their fears that the novel best-of-five-frame competition would turn the action into a lottery, which would suit the lower-ranked journeymen on the potter's wheel. But, as it transpired, the proceedings demonstrated that cream does
invariably rise to the top, with the semi-finals featuring a quartet of world champions, in the guise of Ebdon, Williams, O'Sullivan and Robertson, the latter of whom is now deservedly No 1 in the rankings.

Better still, or at least for those of us who deplored the antics of the self-styled "Rocket" in Glasgow, the event ended in success for one of the nicest fellows on the circuit. Robertson, at 28, has experienced a fantastic few months, following his Crucible heroics and the subsequent birth of his son, Alexander, but although he has been asked to undertake a gruelling itinerary of media commitments, allied to a tiring schedule of long-haul flights between his native Australia and Britain, the Melbourne man has glittered in the spotlight. A few days before competing at the SECC, he took the time to do an in-depth interview with STV and answered every question with a refreshing candour and absence of prima-donnaism, which contrasted starkly with the "Look at Me" histrionics of some of his opponents.
 
Which brings us to O'Sullivan, a man who seemingly never wanders into any minor kerfuffle without trying his hardest to transform it into a full-scale row. Perhaps he was only engaging in a "wind-up", as he later claimed, when threatening not to pot the black and duly completing a maximum 147 break in his defeat of Mark King, but the petulance which constantly surrounds O'Sullivan has become as wearily tiresome as his regular complaints about how is he ready to walk away from the pastime which has made him a millionaire. At his best, Ronnie can produce spell-binding feats of brilliance, capable of enthralling the unconverted and holding the attention of even the MTV generation, but his outburst in Glasgow wasn't remotely funny or entertaining. Instead, it was as if he wanted to emulate the spirit of Gordon Gekko and, at a stroke, relinquish any of the admiration which he has built up with his audience over the years.

Thankfully, then, he had to settle for second behind Robertson. Mercifully, too, with the creation of snooker's new Integrity Unit, there will be far fewer of the type of scandals which have surrounded Higgins and his compatriots, Stephen Maguire and Jamie Burnett, both of whom are still being investigated by Strathclyde Police over an alleged incident dating back to 2008. Personally, I still reckon that the World Open format was overly similar to Twenty20 cricket, in that too many of the contests were over just as they were beginning to get interesting. But that is a minor gripe, next to the confirmation that snooker is back in the public gaze and there are a flood of newcomers waiting to dazzle in the next decade.

And, in Robertson, Hearn has found the ideal poster boy.