FOUR-TIMES Wimbledon semi-finalist Tim Henman would support the return of world-class tennis to West Hants.

But the former world number four believes there might be too many hurdles to overcome for the Lawn Tennis Association to bring a top men’s or women’s tournament back to Bournemouth.

The last time a leading ATP Tour event was held at the Roslin Road South venue was in 1999 when unseeded Romanian Adrian Voinea carried off the Samsung Open men’s title.

Albert Costa had won the first Bournemouth Open singles final at West Hants in 1996, with Greg Rusedski partnering Marc-Kevin Goellner to success in the doubles.

Now it would appear the time is ripe for a return of the top stars to Bournemouth.

Particularly with the likes of Britain’s Andy Murray fourth in the world rankings and teenager Laura Robson seemingly on the verge of breaking through in the women’s game. Tiger Tim, in town to promote a charity event at Golf Central in Yelverton Road to raise cash for Julia’s House, said: “It would be fantastic to have a top men’s or women’s tournament at West Hants again.

“It’s a great club with a great history and if it was to materialise it would be really well supported. The more opportunities people can get to see the best players in the world playing in Britain the better.

“But there are a lot of things that would have to be sanctioned before something like that would happen, like sponsorship, tournament partners and money.

“Also, would they be able to get a week awarded by the WTA or ATP, would there be a week available?

“You can’t have a grass court tournament and there is definitely no chance in the clay court season before Roland Garros.

“With Andy’s success and breakthrough people will say ‘let’s have one in Bournemouth’, but when are you actually going to have it?

“You can’t have it in January because the weather is no good. It’s a nice idea, but there would be a lot of hurdles to overcome.”

Henman, 35, who retired in 2007 following a gutsy 13-year pro career in which he reached six Grand Slam semi-finals and won 11 singles titles, never played at West Hants as a senior.

“But I remember playing in the national championships here when I was under-16 although I wasn’t very good at that age,” he said.

“I didn’t win it. There were lots of other players who were better. I just improved a lot later on.”

Henman, who triumphed on the indoor hard courts of Tashkent in the Uzbekistan Open in 1997 and 1998 instead of lining up at West Hants, added: “I was going to play in the first Bournemouth Open but had to pull out with a groin injury.

“In all honesty, it was on green clay after the US Open when we were just preparing for the indoor hard courts in Europe.

“It wasn’t great timing. It was also quite tricky to have a clay court event.

“I think they (the LTA) felt to have the event was better than nothing.

“I probably haven’t been to the club for 10 years, and you have to appreciate how hard it is to get the opportunity to stage an event. But West Hants is a great club and I’m sure they could accommodate a top event easily.”

West Hants is etched in tennis folklore after staging the first professional tournament of the open era in 1968.

Ken Rosewall won the British Hard Court Championship men’s singles title on outside clay, with Virginia Wade lifting the women’s crown. Subsequent winners included John Newcombe, Bob Hewitt, Adriano Panatta, Ilie Nastase, Margaret Court and Evonne Goolagong.