The Lori McNeil/Elbow Beach Celebrity Tennis Classic is off - for this year at least.

Co-ordinator David Lambert disclosed yesterday the third annual charity event will not take place from September 17 to 21 as originally planned because of a clash with commitments by several of the celebrities slated to participate.

Patron of the week-long Classic, McNeil herself will be "busy" while former world-ranked professional players - Patrick McEnroe, Jim Courier and MaliVai Washington - will all be tied up with the Davis Cup and could not fulfil their initial agreement to be in Bermuda. McEnroe captains the American team of which Courier is coach, while Washington is a television commentator.

"All of them are involved in a match on September 21 and obviously they would need to be preparing for that in the days leading up to it.

"They all said `yes' but then Patrick realised there was something wrong with the dates and that they couldn't make it," said Lambert.

After several meetings involving title sponsors and host hotel, Elbow Beach, it was decided to cancel the 2003 edition.

"It took us a while to say if we can't do it with a high quality of celebrity let's wait. We could have done it but you have to have certain names. Elbow Beach have been very kind and they expect a certain level of name coming to the event.

"Finally we said if we can't do it with the names we expect it's best to step away for a year, regroup and do it even better next year.

"We have had two very good years and we didn't want to do it just for the sake of doing it. Elbow Beach markets the Classic. It's a signature event for them because of the high-profile celebrities.

"So you don't want to say `X person can't come, let's get anyone'. It was a tough decision but we felt it was the right one."

Lambert himself would have struggled to be here had the Classic proceeded as he is scheduled to be in Brazil from September 8 to 17 for the International Tennis Federation's (ITF) Annual General Meeting.

The president of the Bermuda Lawn Tennis Association (BLTA) will meet with McNeil at the US Open next week and discuss future plans for the Classic which raises money for the development of junior tennis here.

"Lori agreed that the dates were just hard this year and we'll be talking about it and working on dates for next year from now."

Lambert noted that Bermuda's tennis community could hardly complain about the cancellation as the celebrities appear at the Classic for free. Therefore, if they have a chance to make money that must be their priority.

"We do not pay any star for appearing here. They come down all expenses paid, that's all. Last year, for example, Zina Garrison could not stay the whole time because she was being paid to be on television.

"So when someone has such lucrative deals you can't blame them.

"We can't compete with the kind of money these big names make. We're just fortunate that so many stars have been to Bermuda over the last two years to assist us in raising funds."

Asked if this year's cancellation will affect the prospects of Bermuda's junior players travelling to various tournaments, Lambert replied: "It may but at the same time we have other fund-raising events scheduled for early next year.

"We're also negotiating with companies to sponsor different teams travelling overseas."