Local squash is set to fulfil one of its biggest ambitions early next spring when Bermuda Squash Racquets Association host the Bermuda Open 2004.

With prize-money of $55,000 and international television coverage set to reach up to 375 million homes worldwide, the event, scheduled from March 15 to 20, will attract a star-studded line-up of the world?s top professional players. making it one of the most prestigious sporting events ever to have been held in Bermuda.

The BSRA confirmed yesterday that all of the world?s top players had expressed a strong interest in competing in the 16-player tournament, which has been given a ?Five-Star? rating by the Professional Squash Association.

The world?s top 11 players will automatically be entered into the main draw with an additional four places chosen after qualifying rounds, providing an opportunity for Bermuda?s best players, particularly young professionals Nick Kyme and James Stout, to compete at the highest level and earn valuable ranking points.

The Open will be held at the newly refurbished Bermuda High School Sports Centre, and will be played on a brand new, state-of the art, all-glass court which is being shipped in.

Director of Squash at the BSRA, Ross Triffitt, was yesterday clearly delighted that the event was now going ahead after months of painstaking organisation.

?We are very excited that the tournament is now on,? he said.

?Although we hosted a smaller, invitational version this year, the Bermuda Open 2004 really will be a massive event and as the Bermuda players who went to the World Championships in Austria this past October can attest, it has all the best professional players buzzing with anticipation.?

Bermuda?s squash chief was at pains to play tribute to the ?invaluable and crucial? contributions of the tournament chair, Kim Carter and BSRA president Stephen Young, who along with himself have been the ?driving forces? of the endeavour.

?Together we have worked really hard to bring a sporting event of this magnitude to Bermuda and we are so grateful that the Department of Tourism and many different companies within the corporate sector have been so positive and responsive,? said Triffitt.

International recognition for the Bermuda Open has already become widespread with several articles previewing the tournament in regional and world squash magazines while the sport?s leading administrative officials have also been willing to voice their excitement

?I see new tournaments as the life blood of the professional game and when a new five-star event comes onto our calendar, particularly with it being in Bermuda, the pulse really starts to quicken,? said the PSA?s World Tour Technical Director Robert Edwardes.

Meanwhile, Chief Executive Gawain Briars believes that the Bermuda Open will be one of the World Tour?s ?marquee events? and saluted the ?many hours of hard work which has gone into making an event of this size a reality.?

By anybody?s standards, 2003 has been a remarkable year for Bermudian squash.

In James Stout and Nick In James Stout and NickKyme, the Island now boasts two players with world rankings, the latter jumping 44 places this last month to 118 in the world. Stout claimed the junior Caribbean title in Guyana in the summer, winning in the final without conceding a point, while the current senior Caribbean champion is Gary Plumstead, Bermuda?s coaching professional.

Furthermore, the men?s team dominated the Caribbean Championships in Barbados in the summer to an unprecedented extent, not losing a single match on their way to the title. Then, despite being comfortably the smallest competing nation at the World Team Championships in Austria this October, Bermuda finished 28th, above both Russia and Slovakia.

Triffitt is convinced that the Bermuda Open will help to further boost an already thriving squash programme and the intention is that a large proportion of the profits from the tournament will be used to stimulate further initiatives, particularly at a junior level.

The BSRA?s ambitions do not stop there, however, with Triffitt revealing that it is their ultimate goal to be ready to host the World Championships in Bermuda by around 2007.

?Once the Bermuda Open is up and running and has an established an international reputation, we already have a verbal confirmation from the World Squash Federation that they would be very keen to have the World Championships in Bermuda,? he confirmed.

?Although it is a massive step forward, the Bermuda Open is just the start of what we are trying to achieve here and in our efforts to transform Bermuda into one of the leading global centres of squash, the benefit to the local game will be enormous.?