Masters organisers Ross Triffitt and Kim Carter are the first to admit that preparations for this year?s event have not been plain sailing.

First came the shock retirement of defending Masters champion and world number one Jonathon Power at the end of February which caught everybody off-guard.

Unsurprisingly, losing such a high profile player with only a few weeks to go before the tournament was somewhat of a disappointment, but what made it even more frustrating was that the entire 32-player draw had to be redone to accommodate Power?s withdrawal.

His name and face were hastily removed at the 11th hour from the mountains of promotional material which has subsequently adorned virtually every shop window on the Island for the past two weeks.

Then came the unwelcome news that two high ranking players from Pakistan, Shakir and Mansoor Zaman ? the latter seeded 16 ? had waited far too late to get their visas in order (despite the best efforts of Triffitt and the Professional Squash Association) and would be unable to make the trip.

But with these time-consuming administrative headaches now behind them, the duo principally responsible for Bermuda?s rise from non-entity to global squash giant are confidently predicting the Masters will be better than ever.

?Every year we?re always trying to improve on what we did before,? said Triffitt, himself a former pro who hails originally from Australia but has been the Island?s director of squash for seven years.

?There are always new challenges which come up every time we go through the process of building the venue and getting everything how we want it but we?re definitely ahead of schedule.

?What?s always exciting is that we have such a fantastic group of very skilled and very willing volunteers, many of whom have been with us from the beginning. So most of them just come in and get on with it which is a wonderful luxury to have.

?We?re also very lucky in the sense that many of our sponsors who came on board for the Bermuda Open in 2004 have stayed with us and we?ve managed to attract several more. This part of the job takes up a huge amount of our time because we are not talking about small sums of money here.

?Ticket sales are well ahead of where they were by this time last year and as Bermudians tend to buy last minute we?re expecting good crowds throughout the tournament.?

Unlike virtually every other major sporting event that Bermuda plays host to, the Masters has to be built almost entirely from scratch and involves the importation of tons of equipment from overseas ? not the least of which is the two-ton all-glass court on which all big tournaments are now played and which also affords a unique and spectacular perspective of the supreme athleticism of the world?s best players.

From start to finish the construction phase at the impressive Jessie Vesey sports complex at the Bermuda High School for Girls takes approximately five days, and requires a plentiful and almost constant supply of manpower.

Around 200 volunteers are needed to build and run the tournament ? a quite phenomenal figure when you consider that this accounts for a quarter of the members of the Bermuda Squash Racquets Association.

As has been well-documented by now, this year?s Master?s is part of a three-year deal with the PSA which is officially the biggest and most lucrative contractual agreement in squash history ? culminating in the World Open next year.

The latter tournament is by far the most important event in the professional game and plans are already well in the works to build at least two glass courts outside in one of Bermuda?s most picturesque locations, with seating on the main court for over 2,000 people.

To guard against bad weather, a state-of-the-art tent-like structure is to be brought in from the United States ? at a rental cost of close to $120,000 ? to cover the entire arena.

The event, which will attract scores of visitors from overseas, is expected to cost close to $2 million with Government having agreed to stump up half.

On the domestic scene, there are more people playing squash in Bermuda than ever before and given the limited number of courts available, saturation point is not far off.

In response, building a major new centre for squash has become a top priority for the BSRA and could become a reality within the next few years.

All of which means that local squash has come a breathtakingly long way since Carter himself rescued the cramped four-court club in Devonshire from near bankruptcy in the mid-1990s, when squash participation levels were at their lowest ebb.

?You?ve got to respect the incredible amount of effort that was put in to turning squash around, well before I had anything to do with it,? Triffitt said modestly.

?We are now in a very strong position and doing all that we can to push the sport forward and to continue growing.?