Bermuda's annual professional tennis tournament gets underway this weekend without the kind of the big names it has boasted in past years, but with one of the sport's hottest prospects.

Eighteen-year-old Andy Roddick has been widely touted by experts as the next great American player, the man tipped to inherit the mantle of Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras.

However, on paper at least, the field for the XL Capital Bermuda Open at Coral Beach is slightly weaker than normal because of a clash with a Masters Series tournament in Monte Carlo.

The top 50 ranked players are obliged to play in Masters Series tournaments and thus Bermuda has lost defending champion Andrew Ilie and the star attraction of the past two years, Patrick Rafter.

But the recruitment of Roddick for the ATP Challenger event at a time when he is showing signs of living up to his potential represents a coup for tournament organisers.

His biggest victory to date came last month in Miami when Roddick defeated Sampras in the Ericsson Open, another Masters Series event, and went on to reach the quarter-finals.

The 6-foot-1 teenager finished last year as the world's number one junior, having won junior Grand Slam titles at the Australian Open and the US Open without dropping a set.

In just over a year since turning pro, Roddick has already reached four Challenger finals, winning three of them at Austin, Burbank and Waikoloa, Hawaii, has played for the US Davis Cup team and is currently number 61 in the ATP Champions Race.

In an interview with the ATP Tour website, Roddick spoke of how he dealt with the pressure of what was expected of him.

"People talk a lot about the weight of expectations more than I think about it,'' said Roddick. "It really doesn't bother me at all -- I'm just going along with the ride.

"Winning the junior Grand Slam titles was great, but I really felt that the breakthrough for me came in Washington DC.'' It was there, last August, that Roddick reached his first ATP quarter-final, where he fell to Agassi. Roddick said it was a huge step from junior to professional level.

"In the juniors you can sometimes slack off a bit, but you can't do that at professional level,'' said the resident of Boca Raton, Florida.

"You have to have a sense of professionalism and you have to approach each match the right way. Washington really opened my eyes in that respect and I realised I can play at this level.'' Roddick is excited by his progress under coach Tarik Benhabiles. "I've been improving my level of play and stepping up my game over the last three or four months and I just want to continue to do that and see where it takes me,'' he said.

Another youngster in the field is 20-year-old Belgian Olivier Rochus, who will join his 22-year-old brother and Davis Cup team-mate Christophe in the main draw.

Christophe is no stranger to Bermuda fans, having reached the quarter-finals at Coral Beach two years ago.

Olivier caused a sensation in his first Grand Slam tournament at Wimbledon last year, when he knocked out number two seed Magnus Norman in an epic, five-set, second-round match.

And he became only the fourth teenager to win an ATP title in his debut season when he triumphed in Palermo last September -- when he ironically beat his brother in the semi-finals.

Clay-court specialist Stefan Koubek of Austria will be back looking to do better than his last visit to Bermuda. In 1999, he was the number two seed, but crashed out in the first round.

Argentine Guillermo Canas, who lost to countryman Hernan Gumy in the Open final two years ago after getting past Nicolas Lapentti in the semis, is one of several South Americans in the field.

The draw will have a true global flavour, as there are also two entrants from South East Asia -- Thai number one Paradorn Srichapan and South Korea's Hyung Taik Lee, who, as a qualifier, reached the fourth round of the US Open last year, where he went down fighting to Sampras, 7-6, 6-2, 6-4.

The action starts with qualifying matches at Coral Beach on Saturday and Sunday, when admission will be free. Main draw action starts next Monday and tickets can be bought by contacting the tournament office on 296-2554.