Top 3 at Wimbledon Face Obscure Foes

Wimbledon officials plucked tokens from a bag today, giving first-round gifts to Ivan Lendl, Boris Becker and Stefan Edberg and sticking John McEnroe with a lump of coal.

The top three men’s seeds were paired against obscure and unknown opponents.

Lendl, No. 1 for the fourth time in five years and fresh from beating Becker in the Queens Club grass-court final, will start his quest for his first Wimbledon title against Argentina’s Christian Miniussi, a newcomer to Wimbledon.

Lendl escaped with a relatively easy draw, with the toughest opponents he could face before the semifinals being young Americans Jim Courier, Pete Sampras and Aaron Krickstein.

Lendl could also go up against two other thorny opponents--Swiss Jakob Hlasek and Frenchman Henri Leconte. Hlasek beat Lendl in the Masters in New York last year before injuring an elbow. Leconte beat Lendl here in the fourth round in 1985.

No. 2 Becker, a three-time champion who lost on clay in the first round of the French Open, will return to his favorite surface to meet a qualifier, and No. 3 Edberg will play Italy’s Omar Camporese.

McEnroe, who made a noisy departure from his last Grand Slam tournament when he was thrown out of the Australian Open, next week returns to the big time against dangerous, tireless Derrick Rostagno.

Rostagno, a former Stanford star, had two match points on Becker before losing in 4 1/2 hours at the U.S. Open last year. The 24-year-old Californian celebrated his matchup with McEnroe by winning a three-hour tuneup on grass Tuesday at an exhibition tournament in Wirral, England, against Australian Wally Masur, 6-4, 3-6, 18-16.

“I look forward to playing him,” Rostagno said of McEnroe. “I’ve been playing well lately.”

The luck among the women went to eight-time champion Martina Navratilova, No. 2 seed, as she sat safely on the opposite side of the draw from No. 1 Steffi Graf, No. 3 Monica Seles and No. 12 Jennifer Capriati.

Graf should have an easy opener against West German compatriot Claudia Porwik, knocked out of Wimbledon in the second round last year and a first-round loser the previous two years.

Capriati opens against Canadian Helen Kelesi, a good player who has never gone past the second round in five times here.

Navratilova opens against Sophie Amiach of France and third-seeded Seles, the French Open champion, faces Maria Strandlund of Sweden.