"One of the best..."

I honestly believe this has been one of the best World Championships ever. The standard of play this year has been fantastic, and a record-equalling 68 centuries over the course of the fortnight is a good indication of that.

There has been a lot of quality snooker from a lot of quality young players, and I think they have raised the bar again in terms of the standard of play.

There were also quite a few really close matches, and it has all helped to make it, in my opinion, a very entertaining tournament.

My player of the tournament, without a doubt, is Mark Selby. Although he is still only 23, he has been a pro since 1999 and so has been around for a few years without making too much of an impression. But the snooker he has played this tournament has been phenomenal.

I think the final against John Higgins might have been a match too far for him. Both players looked very tired on Sunday night, although John was able to pull away because he was able to use his experience to keep his focus and determination a little better than Mark. And then, of course, just as we thought Mark might be all puffed out, he came roaring back with that fantastic comeback.

He has got a really bright future if he can build on his snooker this week, and next season will be a good test for him.

There have been a few players who will look back on the tournament with a bit of regret, perhaps, that they didn't perform as well as they might have done.

Everyone certainly expected a better performance from Ding Junhui in his first round match against Ronnie O'Sullivan, but he never really got going.

Stephen Hendry was also disappointing; he just about came through his match against David Gilbert in the first round before coming unstuck in the second against Ali Carter. Of course, everyone was pointing out that he had only been using his new cue for a month, but that was Stephen's decision and he would have to say it backfired.

Another player I thought might have a good tournament was Mark Williams; we had heard how well he was playing in practice, but he got extinguished very early by Joe Swail.

The match of the tournament for me was the semi-final between Shaun Murphy and Mark Selby, which finished 17-16 to Mark.

It was so close throughout; they were locked at 4-4 after the first session, 8-8 after the second and 12-12 after the third; it was incredibly tight and no-one was too able to pick a winner until Mark came through in the final frame.