Tennis arrest

Italian police arrested a man carrying a case containing five knives and with a fake pistol in his pocket at the Italian tennis open yesterday, two weeks after a man from east Germany stabbed Monica Seles on a tennis court in Hamburg, writes John Roberts from Rome.

The man, whose name was given as Herbert Uebele, 46, from Heidleberg, Germany, was noticed outside the hospitality village at the Foro Italico because, a police spokesman said, he was 'dressed eccentrically'.

At his hotel police found front- row tickets for today's men's semi- finals and tomorrow's final, two woman's wigs, a photograph of Gabriela Sabatini and a poster of Boris Becker. Sabatini was defeated by Conchita Martinez of Spain in the women's final last Sunday, and Becker lost to Andrei Chesnokov of Russia in the men's tournament on Thursday.

The man is to be deported to Germany today.