Navratilova Gets First-Round Bye, Will Play Simpson or Demongeot

Martina Navratilova, top-seeded in the Virginia Slims of Los Angeles, will play her first match against the winner of the match between Rene Simpson of Canada and Isabelle Demongeot of France.

Navratilova, ranked No. 1 in the world, received a first-round bye in the $300,000 event, which begins Monday at the Manhattan Country Club. Simpson lost to No. 1-ranked Steffi Graf in San Diego this week, 6-0, 6-0.

Second-seeded Gabriela Sabatini of Argentina also received a first-round bye and will play the winner of a match between Jenny Byrne of Australia and a qualifier.

The first eight seeded players received byes into the second round. Also seeded are No. 3 Zina Garrison, No. 4 Pam Shriver, No. 5 Mary Joe Fernandez, No. 6 Helen Kelesi of Canada, No. 7 Hana Mandlikova of Australia and No. 8 Catarina Lindqvist of Sweden.