Lori McNeil is determined to pull out all the stops to ensure that next year's Elbow Beach Celebrity Tennis Classic is a massive hit.

To achieve that goal, McNeil is busy preparing a guest list that could include Bill Cosby, "America's No 1 father", and the younger half of the most dominant family in world tennis, Serena Williams.

McNeil is on the Island this week to talk over preparations with David Lambert, the outgoing president of Bermuda Lawn Tennis Association, and to support Robin Givens in her gospel concert, which will be held at Ruth Seaton James Auditorium tonight.

Givens was one of the celebrities who helped to make the inaugural event on September 28 "a success", despite the World Trade Center tragedy a few weeks earlier.

"It was a bit of a blow, not just to my event, but to the world," McNeil said of the suicide plane hijackings on September 11 that claimed the lives of more than 3,500 people, including Bermudians Boyd Gatton and Rhondell Tankard. "I was happy with the people that came and everybody had a great time. A few of the people that didn't come now want to come for the first time."

The list of no-shows included Zina Garrison, the former Wimbledon runner-up, and basketball personalities Clyde Drexler, who starred with the Portland Trail Blazers and Houston Rockets, and John Lucas, the Cleveland Cavaliers coach.

McNeil added: "Bill Cosby has expressed an interest and there are some other friends of mine — I'm going to try to get Serena Williams to come and Chanda Rubin."

The inspiration behind the event is the vision of a Lori McNeil Foundation, which will cater to the needs of local junior players. "It's about getting them to tournaments and coaching. The funds will not necessarily go to the BLTA but the juniors will benefit."

The progress of younger players is something that is close to both the hearts of Lambert and McNeil, who trains juniors in Washington, DC, when she is not at her "day job" as coach and doubles partner to Amanda Coetzer, the world number 19 from South Africa.

"If I had my way I would probably just coach," she said. "But I do enjoy playing doubles and staying active in the game to be able to do the things that I'm doing with the juniors.

"I have to stay somewhat involved to know the direction that the game is taking, so I can pass it on to the juniors. It's a great way through doubles and coaching."

After leaving Bermuda, McNeil and Coetzer set about the tour circuit for four weeks and qualified for the Sanex Championships, with the 30-year-old product from the farming community of Hoopstad, near Johannesburg, also making the grade for the season finale in singles. Sadly, it ended in first round defeats as Coetzer was beaten by Lindsay Davenport, the new world number one, and in doubles the pair lost a gut-wrencher to Kimberley Po-Messerli and Nathalie Tauziat 1-6, 6-3, 6-4.

On a positive note, McNeil and Coetzer finished the season ranked eighth in the world in doubles and the American plans to be active throughout the 2002 season for all the Grand Slam tournaments, starting with the Australian Open next month.

"After we left Europe I went to Amanda's home country where she played a three-day exhibition in three different cities," McNeil added. "I also did the commentary and the development clinics. I had never been to South Africa but it's a beautiful country and they have a lot of talent, just like Bermuda . . . a lot of untouched talent."

If Lambert has his way, young Bermudians who wish to excel in tennis will be given a primrose path.

"The most important part of the development of the foundation, from Bermuda's point of view, is to give our top juniors the opportunity to travel and gain exposure in the different tournaments along the Eastern Seaboard and in the Caribbean," he said. "Bermuda is one of the few countries that does not participate on the ITF Cotec Junior Circuit. It's quite expensive for us to get our juniors to the Caribbean and for them to stay there for a month is unaffordable.

"This is where Lori and I and the foundation will accumulate funds and raise money for projects like that. It's not the only project but it's definitely a project worthwhile funding — to have a team of six to eight juniors, and a coach or two, there for a month, playing different tournaments from island to island.

"You have to go to the Caribbean and play on that circuit for more than one week. One week doesn't do it and that's why these other juniors, when they go to play in the different championships, they are what you call seasoned."