TENNIS: "Hi, I'm Anna Kournikova, you'll see me at The Trilogy event in December." Through the video display set up in the Clarence Hotel in Dublin, the young Russian tennis player smiled at us all. "Hi, I'm Serena Williams, you'll see me in Dublin in December," said the younger Williams, the better one.

Women's tennis more than any understands the importance of the confused boundaries between sport and entertainment and how best to generate a broad appeal that reaches into both.

Even so, the Irish run company Propriety Management have managed to pull together a group of players that few tournaments out side the Grand Slams could muster.

Yesterday, as world number three Monica Seles and third-ranked Jennifer Capriati were added to a parade of talent that features both Williams sisters Serena and Venus, Lindsay Davenport, Jelena Dokic and Kournikova, Dublin is bringing in the top names in the game for the first time since the days when the Irish Open was played on grass before Wimbledon. It is quite a coup and not cheap.

Seán Collins, a one-time Irish satellite and Challenger tour professional from St Michael's College, Dublin, instigated what is being called The Trilogy, a tennis tournament wrapped around an international fashion show and pop concert over five days at the RDS Simmonscourt.

As well as the top three players in the world, the Williams and Capriati, the Ryder Cup-styled Europe v USA team event will also feature the emergent Daniela Hantuchova, Iva Majoli and Barbara Schett.

The entire event is costing €3.5 million of private investment to stage of which €1.65 is going towards the appearance fees of the players. Kournikova might be ranked 34th in the world to Serena Williams at one, but be certain she will have commanded a significant chunk of the pie.

The style of the package is a first in women's tennis that the organisers threaten will catch on. A team event where each match, as in golf's Ryder Cup, will count for a point is run over three days in a singles and doubles format.

The first day, Thursday, December 5th, features an opener between Lindsay Davenport and Austrian Barbara Schett followed by Monica Seles against Anna Kournikova. Unless there's a sharp change in the players' form between now and then, consider the US two points up.

Friday will feature the most potent doubles pairing in the world, maybe ever, "The Sisters" who play Kournikova's closest rivals in the glamour department Hantuchova and Dokic.

"We approached the WTA and asked for their permission. We then decided on a Ryder Cup type feel to give it a little more edge," said Collins.

"The first player who showed interest was Serena Williams and from there it snowballed. She was the first player we approached.

"It is the first time anything of this scale has been done and it took the players a little time to understand what was going on. It is innovative and the charity aspect also had appeal to the players."

The Chernobyl Children's Project will be significant recipients and could walk away with 40-55 per cent of the total raised.

With the current capacity of the RDS running at 5,700 and tickets ranging in price from €70 for regular seating to €550 for executive packages, the organisers are expecting that it will be a sell-out.

The event has been sold to approximately 44 territories and RTÉ have also shown interest, although, no deal has yet been agreed. Both teams will have a captain, which also has not yet been decided.

"Players are interested in team events now," says Collins, who spent two and a half years on the circuit having graduated from the famous Nick Bollitieri Tennis Academy.

"Interest in tennis tournaments is diminishing. You see the Williams sisters playing doubles. In order to make this event competitive, we thought to give it a European dimension."

That has been the scourge of several tennis events that have arrived in Ireland where the format has been to give appearance fees rather than prize money.

But as Collins says, this is new and has multiple appeal to both the players and the public.

What he didn't say was that there is nobody to compete with Serena anyway. This one seems to be a winner.