Sporting Digest: Tennis

BRITAIN'S Davis Cup tie against Romania, scheduled for 15 to 17 July, will be staged at the Northern LTC, West Didsbury, in Manchester. The tie, the first staged in this country for three years, is a play-off to determine whether Britain will stay in Group One of the Davis Cup Euro-African Zone or be relegated to Group Two.

RAIN prevented any play on the third day of the men's Hong Kong Open yesterday.

NICE OPEN Men's singles second round: S Edberg (Swe) bt E Alvarez (Sp) 6-0 6-3; T Guardiola (Fr) bt J Burillo (Sp) 3-6 7-5 6-4; A Berasategui (Sp) bt A Chesnokov (Rus) 5-1 (opp ret); S Dosedel (Cz Rep) bt A Boetsch (Fra) 6-4 6-2.

ATP TOURNAMENT (Birmingham, Ala) First round: D Witt (US) bt M Washington (US) 7-5 6-4; G Stafford (SA) bt S Cortes (Chile) 2-6 6-3 6-3; B Shelton (US) bt R Weiss (US) 6-3 6-4; M Flippini (Urug) bt M Hadad (Colom) 6-0 6-4; C van Rensburg (SA) bt D Flach (US) 1-6 7-6 7-6; J- F Altur (Sp) bt N Pereira (Ven) 6-4 6-4; J Palmer (US) bt T Woodbridge (Aus) 6-4 6-4; R Jabali (Bra) bt M Pernfors (Swe) 3-6 6-0 6-3. Second round: J Stoltenberg (Aus) bt A Mancini (Arg) 4-6 6-4 7-5.

WOMEN'S TOURNAMENT (Bangkok) Singles second round: F Labat (Arg) bt N Baudone (Fr) 6-4 7-6; M McGrath (US) bt R Grande (It) 6-1 6-3; B Paulus (Aut) bt L Harvey-Wild (US) 4-6 7-5 6-1; K Radford (Aut) bt S Wasserman (Bel) 6-3 6-4; P Fendick (US) bt R McQuillan (Aus) 6-2 6-2.