King First Choice in Tennis Draft

Veteran Billie Jean King was the first selection last week when the Women’s Tennis Assn. drew teams for the new $500,000 Chrysler Women’s Tennis Doubles Championship. The eight-team tournament, the richest doubles-only event in tennis, will be held March 1-3 at Carlsbad, Calif. Using a National Football League-style draft, the top eight players participating chose their partners during a drawing. Picking in reverse order of their world rankings, the first pick went to Barbara Potter, a last-minute replacement for Helena Sukova of Czechoslovakia, who was forced to withdraw from the tournament. Potter took King as the first pick in the draft of players chosen 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. The second selection was reserved for Kathy Jordan, who tabbed Alycia Moulton as her partner. Zina Garrison then chose Kathy Rinaldi, Bulgaria’s Manuela Maleeva took Ann Smith, and Australia’s Wendy Turnbull selected Betsy Nagelsen. Pam Shriver, who will test a sore shoulder for the first time in three months in the tournament, selected Joanne Russell as her partner.