Lloyd Replaces Navratilova as No. 1

Chris Evert Lloyd replaced Martina Navratilova as the No. 1 women’s tennis player in the world Monday when the new rankings were issued at Birmingham, England.

Navratilova held the top spot since June, 1982, but Lloyd’s 6-3, 6-7, 7-5 victory over Navratilova in the French Open final Saturday put her back on top of the computer ratings.

The news of Lloyd’s ranking and the announcement of Gabriela Sabatini’s withdrawal from the Birmingham tournament stole the show from competitors who opened play in the women’s final tuneup for Wimbledon.

Sabatini, the 15-year-old Argentine who made it to the French Open semifinals, decided to pull out of the singles competition. Sabatini, who has never played on grass, was fined $550. She will play doubles.

The Chelsea soccer club of the English League announced that it would introduce a computerized fan-identification card scheme next season to combat crowd violence.

The $63,000 system, bought from the American electronics firm, Sperry, would be the first of its kind used at English soccer grounds. Sperry hopes that if the Chelsea experiment is a success, the game’s organizers will agree to a nationwide network of “carding” to screen out soccer hooligans from the 92 professional teams.

Chelsea’s plan will be voluntary, but supporters who choose not to join will not be allowed into certain parts of the ground reserved for home fans. Those who do join will be issued an identification card, bearing their photograph. People subsequently involved in violence at the ground will have their membership suspended and will be banished from the ground.

The Detroit Pistons took Coach Chuck Daly out of consideration for the head coaching job at Philadelphia after the 76ers refused to trade a first-round draft choice as compensation.

Harold Katz, owner of the 76ers, said in Philadelphia that assistant coach Matt Guokas and “possibly one or two more” candidates remain under consideration to replace Billy Cunningham, who resigned last month after eight years at the helm. He added that the Pistons initially asked for two second-round draft picks to release Daly, then tried to “raise the ante after the fact.”

“Had we known they had wanted a first-round pick, we would have never discussed it,” Katz said.

American middleweight Wilfred Scypion, who Saturday withdrew from a fight in London on medical advice, has now been given a clean bill of health, a British boxing promoter said.

Doctors refused to let Scypion fight British middleweight champion Herol Graham because they detected on X-rays what they suspected might be a brain abnormality. But a further brain scan proved that Scypion was in good health and fit to fight, promoter Stephen Eastwood said.

A seventh school, Southern Utah State College, has been approved unanimously for membership in the Western Football Conference effective July 1, 1986. The Cedar City, Utah, state college has an enrollment of 2,700. The approval was voted Friday at San Francisco and announced Monday.

Other members of the NCAA Division II league include charter members Cal Poly SLO, Santa Clara, Portland State and Cal State Northridge. New members of the league competing for the championship this year are Cal Lutheran and Cal State Sacramento.

Washington State football Coach Jim Walden said he will start looking for another job if a provision to ban the use of state money for intercollegiate athletics is kept in Washington’s proposed budget.

Walden claims that a subsection in the higher-education section of Washington’s $9.1 billion, two-year budget would cause the Cougars to eventually lose their membership in the Pacific 10 Conference.