Sporting Digest: Tennis

The Lawn Tennis Association have announced a pounds 150,000 deal with Girobank to sponsor the British Tour which starts at Melton Mowbray in Leicestershire next week and finishes at Nottingham in December next year.

Chris Wilkinson, the British No 4, was beaten 6-3, 6-7, 6-1 by Jan Kroslak of Slovakia in the second round of the China Open clay-court tournament in Peking yesterday. As a result, Wilkinson, who qualified for the tournament, missed out on a quarter-final against the American top seed, Jim Courier, who beat the South African Marcos Ondruska 6-4, 6-3.