An experimental plan allowing tennis professionals to...

An experimental plan allowing tennis professionals to compete in the 1988 Olympic Games was endorsed by the International Olympic Committee’s executive board in Lausanne, Switzerland.

The board took the action shortly after North Korea postponed until today a meeting with the panel and IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch to discuss the country’s involvement in the 1988 Games in Seoul.

Tennis was the last sport to have its eligibility for 1988 resolved. The plan approved by the board, if ratified by the full IOC at its session in May in Istanbul, Turkey, will make the tennis tournament at the Seoul Games virtually a fifth Grand Slam event.

But the professionals would have to suspend most of their professional connections--including lucrative endorsement contracts and links to personal coaches and agents--during the Games. Logos for the player’s individual sponsors would be banned from uniforms, shoes and racquets.

The players would be subject to regular Olympic regulations, such as doping controls and living in the athletes’ village, and would be urged to take part in international events such as the men’s Davis Cup and the women’s Federation Cup. Those tournaments, along with regional qualifying rounds, would determine the Olympic field.

The proposal also bars players from accepting, “either directly or indirectly, any form of financial reward for (their) participation in or results of the Olympic tournament.” Exceptions would be payments established by the player’s national Olympic committee.

The plan would be in effect for 1988 only.