Tennis stars Pat Rafter, Andrew Ilie and Todd Martin lent their support to the XL Capital Bermuda Open yesterday with a special Press conference to mark the tournament's tenth anniversary.

XL chief executive Brian O'Hara said: "We're real proud of the investment we have made in this event."

He said that the tennis tournament was emblematic of the kinds of qualities XL tried to instill in its staff, such as sportsmanship, ethics, excellence and teamwork.

Mr. O'Hara said that XL was currently pulling together a number of acquisitions and a re-branding exercise. He said that while he had been talking about this whole process, the image that kept coming to mind was of a Wimbledon semi-final between Rafter and Martin.

"During the fourth set both Todd and Pat reversed the linesman's call in each other's favour.... That made an impression on me," said Mr. O'Hara.

Tournament director, Alec Anderson, reminisced about the early days of the tournament and said that the organisers were very grateful to have XL commit to the tournament.

"They have been a very generous sponsor to us." He said that his law firm, Conyers Dill & Pearman, had also been supportive in allowing him the time to devote to the event.