Sporting Digest: Tennis

BORIS BECKER'S poor form continued when he was beaten by the Argentinian, Franco Davin, in the first round of the Madrid Open yesterday. Becker, the second seed, looked ponderous and committed a string of unforced errors in his 54-minute 6-2, 6-2 defeat by the world's No 61.

MADRID OPEN Men's singles, first round: F Davin (Arg) bt B Becker (Ger) 6-2 6-2; F Clavet (Sp) bt J Hlasek (Swit) 6-0 3-6 6-4; A Chesnokov (Rus) bt F Montana (US) 6-2 6-2; J Svensson (Swe) bt R Gilbert (Fr) 6-0 6-1; A Olhovskiy (Rus) bt G Raoux (Fr) 2-6 7-5 7-5; J Burillo (Sp) bt L Mattar (Bra) 6-4 6-2; E Sanchez (Sp) bt O Delaitre (Fr) 6-1 6-1; S Edberg (Swe) bt J A Conde (Sp) 6-0 6-3; T Carbonell (Sp) bt J L Rascon (Sp) 6-2 6-3.

MUNICH OPEN Men's singles, first round: M Stich (Ger) bt B Karbacher (Ger) 6-3 6-3; M Naewie (Ger) bt J Sanchez (Sp) 6-3 6-1; T Muster (Aut) bt C-U Steeb (Ger) 6-4 6-2; P Korda (Cz Rep) bt M Larsson (Swe) 7-5 6-4; M Damm (Cz Rep) bt T Enquist (Swe) 7-5 7-5; M Gustafsson (Swe) bt D Prinosil (Ger) 6-1 6-2; N Kulti (Swe) bt G Perez- Roldan (Arg) 6-3 6-3.

ANDRE AGASSI, the Wimbledon champion, due to begin his French Open build-up at the Atlanta clay-court tournament this week, has pulled out of the event with tendinitis in his right wrist.

ATLANTA CHALLENGE Men's singles, first round: J Tarango (US) bt A Krickstein (US) 2-6 6-1 6-3; A Gomez (Ecu) bt J Arias (US) 6-3 6-3; P Sampras (US) bt V Spadea (US) 6-2 6-4; J Eltingh (Neth) bt J Morgan (Aus) 7-5 7-6; J Palmer (US) bt R Reneberg (US) 7-6 7-6; B Shelton (US) bt L Lavalle (Mex) 6-2 6-4; C Mezzadri (It) bt A Sznajder (Can) 6-3 6-2.

MONICA SELES, the world No 1 returning to the women's circuit after a nine- week absence due to illness, beat the Swedish qualifier, Maria Strandlund, 6-2, 6-2 in the first round of the Hamburg tournament yesterday.

HAMBURG WOMEN'S OPEN Singles, first round: H Rusch (Ger) bt S Steud (Fr) 6-3 6-0; M Seles (Yug) bt M Strandlund (Swe) 6-2 6-2; N Baudone (It) bt N Medvedev (Ukr) 6-1 3-6 7-5; P Begerow (Ger) bt N van Lottum (Neth) 4-6 6-4 6- 4; A Huber (Ger) bt B Fulco-Villella (Arg) 6-4 6-7 6-2; P Tarabini (Arg) bt S Frankl (Ger) 6-4 6-1; M Maleeva (Bul) bt C Singer (Ger) 6-4 7-5; L Meskhi (Geor) bt L Neiland (Lat) 6-4 6-0.

WOMEN'S TARENTE TOURNAMENT (Rome) Singles, first round: F Romano (It) bt C Fauche (Swit) 7-5 3-6 6-3; L Ferrando (It) bt V Ruano- Pascual (Sp) 7-5 6-2; N Ercegovic (Croa) bt C Wood (GB) 6-3 6-1; C Papadaki (Gr) bt J Kruger (SA) 6-3 7-6; N Jagerman (Neth) bt M Paz (Arg) 7-6 6-3.

INDONESIAN WOMEN'S OPEN (Jakarta) Singles, first round: C Porwick (Ger) bt P Thoren (Fin) 7-6 6-2; K Godridge (Neth) bt K Nagatsuka (Jap) 2-6 6-2 6-1; E Likhovsteva (Rus) bt J Byrne (Aus) 6-2 6-3; K Boogert (Neth) bt C MacGregor (US) 7-5 6-2; K Quentrec (Fr) bt J Suteja (Indon) 4-6 6-2 6-3; L Niemantsverdriet (Neth) bt J Faull (Aus) 6-3 7-5.

BRITAIN'S Virginia Humphreys-Davies was thrown out of the LTA women's Satellite Tournament in Lee-on-Solent today after three code violations.

LTA WOMEN'S SATELLITE (Lee-on-Solent) First round: I Kurta (US) bt C Grunes (Ger) 6-2 6-0; J Pullin (Sussex) bt S Pifferi (It) 6-4 6-4.