Women’s Tennis Facing Pressure to Send Its Sponsor Up in Smoke

Virginia Slims cigarettes may be on the way out as the sponsor of the women’s professional tennis tour.

Under pressure from anti-smoking forces, the Women’s International Professional Tennis Council is searching for a new sponsor, according to sources close to the association and anti-smoking advocates.

They said the council has hired Advantage International, a Washington sports management consulting firm, to help find a new sponsor when its five-year sponsorship agreement with Virginia Slims ends in 1989.

Philip Morris Co., which makes Virginia Slims and is expected to provide $16.2 million in tournament prize money this year, says it expects to to remain as the sponsor of the tournament.

The controversy comes when all sports associations have come under increasing pressure to cut ties with cigarette makers and alcoholic beverage producers.

Leading the move to drop Virginia Slims is the Coalition on Smoking OR Health, a group of health organizations that includes the American Heart Assn. It wants the Women’s International Tennis Assn. to support a new sponsor at a players’ association meeting Sunday in London, where the Wimbledon tennis championship will begin Monday.