Tennis Roundup : Top-Seeded Lendl Plays Moir in First U.S. Open Match

Top-seeded Ivan Lendl will open his bid for a third straight U.S. Open title next week against South African Barry Moir, it was announced Thursday in New York by the United States Lawn Tennis Assn.

In women’s play, No. 1-seeded Steffi Graf of West Germany will play her opening match against Bettina Fulco of Argentina.

Two-time Wimbledon champion Boris Becker drew the toughest opening-round opponent of the top four seeded men. The West German, seeded fourth, will open against Tim Wilkison, the only American to reach the quarterfinals of last year’s U.S. Open.

In other opening-round matches, No. 2-seeded Stefan Edberg of Sweden will face Derrick Rostagno, No. 3 Mats Wilander of Sweden will play a yet-to-be-determined qualifier, and No. 5 Miloslav Mecir of Czechoslovakia will meet Karel Novacek, also of Czechoslovakia.

No. 6 Jimmy Connors, the highest-seeded American man, will open against Joey Rive, a wild-card entry. Eighth-seeded John McEnroe will play Matt Anger.

Barring upsets, Lendl would meet Becker in one semifinal, and Edberg would face Wilander in the other.

Graf will be playing in her first tournament since replacing Martina Navratilova as the world’s top-ranked woman player. The 18-year-old West German has lost only one match this year--to Navratilova in the Wimbledon final.

Navratilova, seeded No. 2, will play Kate Gompert in the opening round. In other matches, No. 3 Chris Evert faces Susan Sloane and No. 4 Hana Mandlikova plays Nathalie Herreman of France.

Fifth-seeded Pam Shriver, who won the Canadian Open earlier this month, plays Wendy White in the first round.

If the seedings hold, the semifinals would match Graf against Evert and Navratilova against Mandlikova.

Unseeded Paul Annacone upset sixth-seeded Joakim Nystrom of Sweden, 6-3, 6-2, in the first round of the $150,000 Hamlet Challenge Cup, which was moved indoors because of rain at Jericho, N.Y.

Annacone, ranked 36th in the world, took a 3-0 lead in the first set and went up, 5-1, in the second set against Nystrom, No. 12 in the world.

In another match, No. 2-seeded Jimmy Connors needed only 52 minutes to beat Jimmy Arias, 6-0, 6-3.

Playing what he called “near-perfect tennis,” Connors gave up only eight points in the first set. He had his service threatened only once, when Arias reached deuce in the opening game of the second set.

Rain forced postponement of Thursday’s matches in the $150,000 United Jersey Bank women’s tournament at Mahwah, N.J.