International Tennis Federation president Francesco Ricci-Bitti said earlier this week the sport's governing body had been negotiating with the men's tour to see if in the future the season-opening major could be delayed until March.

Tournament director Paul McNamee said Friday he is willing to consider a change but only as part of an overhaul of the entire tennis calendar.

He said the earliest realistic time to change would be in 2007, after Melbourne held the 2006 Commonwealth Games.

Many players support a switch, which would give them extra time off between seasons and a reprieve from the extreme heat of the Australian summer.

Tennis Australia chairman Geoff Pollard said any switch would have to be decided on by the Australian Open organizers and not the ITF or the men's or women's tours.

McNamee stressed that such a move would have to be part of larger changes.

``If the sport really had a will to have a clean sheet of paper to get it right, we're not going to be intransigent about it,'' he said. ``We're going to be in January, where we are, for the next few years, there's no question about that. Any (change) we are talking about is way, way off in the future.''

McNamee said consideration also must be given to protecting the Australian summer circuit, which includes tournaments in Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne, the Gold Coast and Perth.

The Australian Open is held in the last two weeks of January, during the school summer vacation.

Wimbledon is prepared to move its tournament back a week if tennis officials decide to change the tennis schedule.

Wimbledon officials have long favored extending the time between the French Open from two weeks to three, a move being investigated by the International Tennis Federation.

All England Club chief executive Chris Gorringe said Friday a change could not happen before 2005.

Spokesman Johnny Perkins said Wimbledon officials have been lobbying to move the two-week tournament back a week. He said the plan now has momentum with the ITF and the WTA and ATP tours.