Edberg to Open Against Krishnan in Los Angeles Tennis Tournament

Top-seeded Stefan Edberg drew Ramesh Krishnan of India for his first-round match in the $225,000 Volvo Tennis/Los Angeles tournament beginning Monday at UCLA.

Pete Sampras, seeded No. 2, will play Gilad Bloom of Israel in his first-round match, which will probably be scheduled for Tuesday night, along with Edberg-Krishnan.

Third-seeded Michael Chang and fourth-seeded Brad Gilbert head a group of six other seeded players in the 32-player field announced during Friday’s draw at the Beverly Hills Hotel. Three wild-card players--Jim Pugh, Paul Annacone and Jonathan Stark--were added to the field, which will also include four qualifiers to be decided this weekend at the Los Angeles Tennis Center at UCLA.

Sean Brawley of Pacific Palisades and Mark Jeffrey of Woodland Hills advanced to the qualifying tournament by reaching the final of the pre-qualifier last week.

Chang, who lost to Edberg in the 1990 final, drew 1988 champion Mikael Pernfors in the first round and was placed in Sampras’ half of the draw. Gilbert drew a qualifier for his first-round opponent.

Edberg and Sampras will open the doubles competition and join together as a team Monday night in a featured match benefiting the Starlight Foundation. A celebrity doubles match will precede the debut of the Edberg-Sampras team. . . . The hard-court surface at UCLA is called Pacific Pave, a medium-fast surface comparable to that at the National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadow, N.Y., site of the U.S. Open. . . . The toughest draw probably belongs to 1989 champion, Aaron Krickstein, seeded No. 7, who will meet Dan Goldie in the first round, then Jason Stoltenberg or Paul Annacone, then probably Edberg.