Women Will Draft Partners for Tournament at La Costa

The Women’s Tennis Assn. will use a National Football League-style draft to draw teams for the new $500,000 Chrylser Women’s Tennis Doubles Championship to be held March 1-3 at the La Costa resort in Carlsbad, Calif.

The new format formally will be announced Wednesday during the women’s tennis tournament here, the first stop on the women’s tour.

The tournament will feature the top eight ranked singles players in the world selecting their partners from a pool consisting of the next 12-ranked players as well as those who have won Grand Slam singles or doubles titles in the past five years.

As in the National Football League draft, the selections will be made in the inverse order of the player’s ranking.

As currently ranked the top eight players are: Martina Navratilova, Chris Evert Lloyd, Hana Mandlikova, Pam Shriver, Wendy Turnbull, Manuela Maleeva, Helena Sukova and Claudia Kohde-Kilsch.

Currently, all except Lloyd, have committed to play at La Costa.