Wanted: Tennis lover, preferably rich, to back established tournament as it bids to make next step.

The XL Bermuda Open celebrated its 15th anniversary last week, and produced one of the best singles finals ever seen on the Island.

It's considered one of the top events on the Challenger Tour, and organisers believe the time has come to step up a gear and become a fully fledged ATP Tour event once more.

That topic has been discussed several times in the past, a change in circumstances means that this time the XL Open is better placed than ever to attract the game's top players to the Coral Beach and Tennis Club.

Tournament director Alec Anderson believes the time is right to make the change, and is prepared to step aside if it means securing Tour status.

"I'm always fishing around to see if we could become a Tour event, and we talk about it every year around this time," he said.

"We haven't done a lot (about it), because I'm extremly busy in my legal career, so I probably don't put enough time into the tennis tournament trying to get us more funds to get us to Tour level status.

"It's tough to get Tour level status in any event, just because it is a crowded schedule. They don't come up for sale that often, there are one or two opportunities actually coming up right now, so to have a Tour event you have to pay for the right, then you have to pay an additional prize fund.

"I think because the organisation is there, it is really all about the money - if we had a sponsor who wanted it, and were willing to invest the money in it. I would do it now, I would like it to be done now if the sponsor wanted to spend the relevant money, and the Tour say they are available.

"But I also think we are going to try and restructure some of our management. It takes a lot of time (to plan this event), and I don't think we really have the time to do it. I've got a busy job, we have a couple of kids we are bringing up, and we might like to hire one or two people who can keep it going like this."

Any move would not be cheap, however. A Tour franchise typically sells for anywhere between $100,000 and $750,000, with the average coming in at around $450,000.

Prize money is also an issue. The winner at last week's event got $14,000 from a prize fund of $100,000. In the world of professional tennis that is just a drop in the ocean.

There is, however, a change to ATP rules that might benefit Bermuda greatly. From next year the game's top players will be required to play in seven smaller tournaments throughout the year. In these, the prizemoney would remain relatively low, but would have the added attraction of being worth roughly 500 ranking points.

"If you look at Houston (the tournament the week before Bermuda), would it have been worthwhile to have prizemoney of $450k (as opposed to the $100k in Bermuda), just to have three or four different players? And they might lose in the first round, it just so happened that this year James Blake made the final.

"Is it worth the spend?

"Tournaments cost $100k to $750k for a small Tour event, it can be a lot more for the big Masters series. You might give it a balance of say $400-$500k. It depends who you are buying from. If you're buying from somebody who has been making a loss for a long time, and they just want to get rid of it, they might sell it for not very much. "

If you're buying it from the Tour, and they like where you are, and what you do with the tournament, they might sell it to you for a reasonably mid-level price, and give you time to pay it, five years or whatever. And that makes it a bit more palatable.

"But you need long-term contracts from a couple of big sponsors to make that happen."

One thing that Bermuda has is a set of facilities that are already up to Tour standards. A Tour venue twice already in 1995-96, the facilities have been further improved since then and if anything are better than some of the places that already host Tour events.

"We have been a Tour event, in '95-96, and the courts have improved since then. There was a drainage problem back then, but that has been fixed and we haven't had any problem with it. I don't think we would have to do anything major, we might check that the lights are Tour standard.

"The Tour said it was a Tour quality run place. Some other Tours that you go to, you'll find smaller rooms for the players, and the ATP Tour staff and all that, and they are treated so well here, by the organisation and by Coral Beach. They don't get food like this pretty much anywhere else. Having practice courts helps as well."

It is 15 years since Anderson became involved in the XL Open, and having reached a personal milestone, he is keen to see it develop further, even if that means taking more of a back seat.

"I always thought it would be nice if we could make 15 years," he said. "So that was in my mind. Now we have the challenge of maintaing sponsorship, to go back to the major sponsors to see if they are still able to support us.

"Coral Beach has a new owner-partner, they are in total support of it as well. The insurance business is going through a tough time right now, and we will have to see if that has any effect. I think we have got a lot more interest out of some non-Bermuda located businesses. We are so international here, that it is an opportunity for say New York investment banks to come to Bermuda and entertain some clients.

"I'd like to stay involved but I think we need to get some new people involved, to help manage the admistration day-to-day, probably with some guidance. It takes time to think things through, and do it, and I don't have that much time, and neither does (my wife) Maribeth, much as we love it.

"We'll see how it goes, we need the financial support, and it kind of goes from there. We're expecting to continue, and the tournament will keep growing, and all these pieces will fall into place."