TeamTennis : Teltscher and Bonder Lead Strings Into Opener

The Los Angeles Strings, headed by singles players Eliot Teltscher and Lisa Bonder, will open their TeamTennis season tonight at 7:30 at the Forum against the Boston Bays.

Elbow surgery has slowed Teltscher, a member of the 1985 U.S. Davis Cup team who is ranked 43rd in the world. Two weeks ago at Wimbledon, he lost in the second round to Milan Srejber, 7-6, 6-4, 6-4. He will meet the Bays’ Butch Walts.

Bonder, ranked 31st in the world among the women, also lost in the second round at Wimbledon, to Anne Minter, 3-6, 6-2, 6-2.

Bonder will play Andrea Jaeger, 21, who is trying to make a comeback from a shoulder injury that has slowed her for two years. As a 15-year-old, Jaeger became the second-youngest player to win a professional tournament, and she was also the youngest player ever to be seeded at Wimbledon, where she made the quarterfinals in 1980 and the final in 1983. Partly because of the layoff, Jaeger is ranked No. 145 in the world.

Completing the roster for the Strings, who with a 5-9 record tied the Bays for sixth place in the eight-team league last year, are Steve Meister, ranked No. 705, and Penny Barg, No. 143.

“I think this is the strongest team we’ve had in four years,” said Lorne Kuhle, in his fourth year as String coach. In their two matches last season, the Strings beat the Bays, 24-22 and 28-16.

The eight-team league, in which teams play each other twice, will end its season in early August.