BERMUDA is about to host one of the highest-class sporting events in its history in perhaps the most remarkable sporting venue the island has ever seen.

Next month's Bermuda Open squash tournament will almost certainly be the first time that the top ten athletes in any sport have come here to compete in a top-drawer tournament.

To see some of the world's most highly conditioned male athletes slug it out should be enough to whet the appetite of sports fans. If an added attraction were needed, it's that spectators will be offered levels of comfort hitherto unseen for island sports fans.

Unlike the metal bleachers that have given aficionados of football, cricket, tennis and rugby aching backs and stiff backsides over the years, fans at the squash will be able to relax in 560 theatre-style, cushioned, flip-down seats brought in from the US.

They will be installed around three sides of a glass court. The court's glass panels will be shipped in from Austria in a 40-foot container and will take a team of six to eight men around two-and-a-half days to erect.

The whole set-up will be housed in the newly renovated Vesey building at the Bermuda High School. The glass court will allow fans to see the athleticism of the top players in one of the most physically demanding sports from a variety of angles.

The Bermuda Open will be classed as a "five-star" or top-ranking event on the Professional Squash Association (PSA) world tour and will carry high world ranking points, thus guaranteeing the presence of the very best players.

At least half a dozen squash journalists from around the world and a television crew will provide the island with some welcome global publicity. The event will have a potential world-wide television audience of 375 million.

The story of how a tiny island boasting a total of four squash courts and a few hundred amateur players has come to be hosting one of the top eight events on the international squash calendar is one of a vision turned into reality through extraordinary hard work, dedication and unerring faith in the project.

The key man in making it all happen is the Bermuda Squash Racquets Association (BSRA) director of squash, Ross Triffitt, who is also the tournament director.

"Without Ross, there is no way we'd have been able to pull this off," said Stephen Young, president of the BSRA. "His contacts, his experience and his hard work are what has made it all possible."

Triffitt, an Australian, joined the BSRA nearly five years ago. A former top player who went into coaching, the fact that he knows some of those who ply their trade on the PSA tour has been useful in organising the tournament.

The fact that one of those contacts is 2002 world squash champion Dave Palmer, a Bermuda resident, was doubly handy.

Indeed, there has been great support from players for a Bermuda tournament, as it is a perfect stop-over for them between Europe and North America where they play most of their squash.

However, many more ingredients were required to make the plans for such a major tournament a recipe for success.

"When we proposed the idea of this tournament, the PSA were bending over backwards to help," Mr. Triffitt said. "But the bottom line was that we had to come up with the dollars.

"It is costing hundreds of thousands of dollars to stage this tournament and there is also $55,000 in prize money.

"Our sponsors have come up with the money and have helped us out in a variety of ways. Then we needed volunteers with a real willingness to make it happen who are prepared to give up a lot of time. There are going to be something like 200 volunteers involved.

"I always wanted to stage a tournament of this sort when I was working in Australia. Coming here and then seeing the Logic Bermuda Open in 2003, I saw that it could be a reality."

Five of the world's top players and three of Bermuda's budding stars played in the Logic Bermuda Open, an eight-man invitational event played on BSRA's Devonshire courts last March. However, it was a huge leap from there to this year's five-star event, which involves 23 overseas professionals. The logistics have literally been keeping Mr. Triffitt awake at night.

"I've been surviving on a few hours' sleep just lately," Mr. Triffitt said. "It's like that when you have to keep in touch with people in so many different time zones, in places like Australia, California and Kuwait. Now the tournament is getting near, it's very difficult to explain my emotions."

The event will start with qualifying, in which four local players, including world number 211 James Stout, will battle it out with 12 others for four places in the 16-man main draw. Bermuda's top player, Nick Kyme, is guaranteed a place in the round of 16, having been granted a wildcard.

He has been drawn to play against world number two Peter Nicol, only recently knocked off the top of the rankings.

Organisers had to fight hard to win their case for Kyme to get in, even though the player had moved 44 places up the world rankings in a single month ? the fourth biggest climber ? to reach number 114.

"We were in discussions with the PSA about Nick for some time," Mr. Triffitt said. "We felt it was important to have a local player involved so everyone here can see him play on the glass court. For us, it was a key part of the event.

"When they did not give us the wildcard, it was quite upsetting. David Palmer, an ex-world champion who lives in Bermuda, was very upset about the decision and he made that known to the PSA. Dave's opinion carries quite a bit of weight in squash. And then we got permission to put Nick in."

Palmer, the reigning British Open champion and captain of world champions Australia, will be among the contenders for the Bermuda Open title.

BSRA is hosting an amateur tournament on its own courts in the same week as the professional event to add to the feeling that the third week in March will be a veritable festival of squash.

"We've had some interest from the UK for the amateur tournament," Mr. Triffitt said. "The concept is to try and bring in as many visitors as possible ? and to entertain them so that hopefully they will become repeat visitors. To that aim, we're also organising a golf day and various evening functions."

Such words will be music to the ears of Bermuda's Tourism Minister Ren?e Webb and her department is one of the tournament's primary sponsors. One of the major selling points is that the sport of squash identifies well with Bermuda tourism's target demographic in the US.

"Squash is known as the Wall Street sport," Mr. Young explained. "It's very popular with professional and business people and that is Tourism's target market. Also more than half the squash courts in the US are in the part of the northeast where most of our visitors come from ? Boston, New York, Washington.

"The Department of Tourism actually paid for us to have a booth at the US Open in Boston to advertise our event. The response was overwhelming. More than 88 per cent of people asked said they would be willing to travel to Bermuda. It was very worthwhile."

Persuading sponsors to help out has involved around six months of lobbying and giving presentations. Tournament chairman Kim Carter and Mr. Young have been instrumental in this work.

there is no title sponsor, the tournament will be presented by Logic Communications and Hewlett Packard and hosted by Endurance Re, while the Department of Tourism and the Fairmont Hamilton Princess Hotel are primary sponsors. ACE, Capital G, HWP and Miles Market are supporting sponsors.

At least 24 other local companies and six individual benefactors are lending financial support in what has been an impressive team effort from the island's business community.

The future for squash ? local and international ? in Bermuda looks bright. The BSRA has more than 400 members and a thriving junior programme, thanks mainly to the efforts of Mr. Triffitt and playing professional Gary Plumstead. And apart from hopes that the Open will become a fixture on the PSA calendar, the island has been promised the Squash World Championships for 2007, a massive event including both male and female players.

"Provided we can prove that we can come up with the goods, then the world championships are ours for 2007," Mr. Triffitt said. "Traditionally, the event moves around from year to year ? it's such a huge effort to organise. What I'm hoping is that it'll be possible for Bermuda to do it again and again."

The use of mobile glass courts has allowed top squash tournaments to take place in some stunning venues. The Al Abram Super Series tournament takes place in the Egyptian desert in the shadow of the Pyramids, while the Tournament of Champions is played in New York's Grand Central Station.

This year the Bermuda Open is playing it safe, going for an indoor venue to avoid problems with the weather. Rain on the court's wooden floor can cause damage to it.

But Mr. Triffit was hopeful that future Bermuda tournaments could follow the scenic trend and be played in a spectacular coastal venue with canvas overhead to keep out the rain.