Sporting Digest: Tennis

BRITAIN have been seeded fourth in Group One of the Euro/African zone for next year's Davis Cup. The team will play either Norway, Luxembourg, Portugal, Romania or Zimbabwe in the first round on 25 to 27 March. Britain, whose last victory in the competition was against Austria in Manchester more than two years ago, have avoided the three strongest nations in the zone: South Africa, Switzerland and Croatia. Germany are the top seeds in the World Group.

MICHAEL STICH, the world No 4, has chosen Germany's Davis Cup captain, Niki Pilic, as his new coach in succession to Mark Lewis.

SEIKO SUPER MEN'S TOURNAMENT (Tokyo) Third round: T Martin (US) bt P Korda (Cz Rep) 6-3 6-3; G Rusedski (Can) bt R Krajicek (Neth) 6-4 6-7 7-6; I Lendl (US) bt A Volkov (Rus) 6-7 6-2 6-4; S Edberg (Swe) bt J Svensson (Swe) 6-2 6-4; P Haarhuis (Neth) bt G Ivanisevic (Croa) 6-2 6-2; A Medvedev (Ukr) bt P Rafter (Aus) 6-4 6-4; B Becker (Ger) bt P McEnroe (US) 6-1 7-6; M Chang (US) bt M Woodforde (Aus) 4-6 6-1 6-3.

ATP MEN'S TOURNAMENT (Tel Aviv): Quarter-finals: T Muster (Aut) bt D Johnson (US) 7-5 7-5; G Bloom (Isr) bt E Erlich (Isr) 5-7 7-5 6-3; A Mandsdorf (Isr) bt G Stafford (SA) w/o; A Cherkasov (Rus) bt A Gaudenzi (It) 6-7 7-6 7-5.

MEN'S TOURNAMENT (Bolzano, It) Second round (round robin): J Stark (US) bt A Chesnokov (Rus) 6-2 6-4; D Prinosil (Ger) bt G Raoux (Fr) 6-7 6-3 6-1; C Pioline (Fr) bt J Bates (GB) 7-6 7-5; O Delaitre (Fr) bt M Damm (Cz Rep) 7-5 6-4.

PORSCHE WOMEN'S TOURNAMENT (Filderstadt, Ger) Second round (round robin): M Navratilova (US) bt E Maniokova (Rus) 6-4 6-2; B Rittner (Ger) bt J Halard (Fr) 6-1 6-4; Z Garrison-Jackson (US) bt A Temesvari (Hung) 6-3 6-1; N Zvereva (Bela) bt K Habsudova (Slovak) 6-2 4-6 6-2; N Tauziat (Fr) bt G Fernandez (US) 4-6 7-5 6-4.

WOMEN'S TOURNAMENT (Montpellier, Fr) Second round: B Schett (Aut) bt S Meier (Ger) 3-6 7-6 6-2; S Appelmans (Bel) bt A Carlsson (Swe) 6-3 6-3; E Callens (Bel) bt N Feber (Bel) 4-6 7-5 7-5; M McGrath (US) bt C Porwik (Ger) 6-4 6-1.