NEW YORK (AP) -- Ending a nearly two-year search, the WTA Tour found a sponsor.

Sanex, a European body care brand, has signed a five-year contract to become the worldwide title sponsor of the women's tennis tour.

Neither Bart McGuire, chief executive officer of the WTA Tour, nor Frank Meysman, board chairman of Sara Lee/DE, would give any figures on the deal, believed to be worth $40 million.

The agreement includes the title sponsorship as well as signage, hospitality and other on site benefits at WTA Tour events throughout the world except in North America, where Sanex will have limited benefits.

The WTA Tour had been without an overall sponsor since Corel, a Canadian software company, ended its sponsorship a year ago. That had become somewhat of an embarrassment for the sport, considering that the tour has produced young stars such as Martina Hingis, sisters Venus and Serena Williams, Lindsay Davenport, Anna Kournikova and Amelie Mauresmo.

The Sanex WTA Tour, as it will be known beginning in January, hopes the company will add the North American sponsorship for the last three years of the contract, but until then will be able to sell those rights to a different sponsor.

``We're on the marketplace for a North American sponsor with the benefits of the net posts and the banners on the walls and hospitality and other vendors at the tournaments,'' McGuire said. However, ``Sanex will indeed be the tour-wide title sponsor and ... they have an option for the last three years to come into the United States and the rest of North America.''

Sanex is a subsidiary of Sara Lee/DE, which is headquartered in the Netherlands and is a division of the Chicago-based Sara Lee Corp.

``It's definitely our vision that we would like to have a worldwide brand called Sanex,'' Meysman said. ``At this point in time, Sanex is not on the U.S. market. And we are continuing to look at what is the best way to enter the U.S. market.''

Sanex has been involved in women's tennis for several years through its sponsorship of the Sanex Team of young European players and through its sponsorship of a WTA Tour event in Knokke-Heist, Belgium.

The 2000 Sanex WTA Tour will include 62 tournaments in 28 countries during an 11-month schedule, concluding with the Chase Championships in November in New York' Madison Square Garden.