British tennis stars have been handed a lucrative incentive to perform well at Eastbourne later this month by the tournament sponsors.
Hastings Direct will pay a £50,000 bonus to any home player reaching the quarter-finals of the Championships at Devonshire Park from June 13 to 18.
Three of the players chasing the prize, British No. 1 Elena Baltacha, Anne Keothavong and Katie O'Brien, form the new Hastings Direct Tennis Team.
Hastings Direct's chairman and chief executive David Gundlach hit the headlines at Eastbourne last year when he offered £100,000 to any British player reaching the fourth round at Wimbledon.
He said: The sponsorship of the Hastings Direct Tennis Team and the British Player Challenge demonstrate our commitment to British tennis and our desire to support the LTA performance team's work in developing the next generation of talent."
Six British women competed in last year's Eastbourne event, won by Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova.
Roger Federer's hopes of lifting the 2005 French Open title came to an end last night when he was beaten 6-3 4-6 6-4 6-3 by Spanish prodigy Rafael Nadal in the semi-finals.
Nadal plays unseeded Mariano Puerto, who beat Nikolay Davydenko, in the final.
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