U.S. Women’s Tennis Team Faces Greece in 1st Round

TOKYO —  The top-seeded United States team will play Greece, and defending champion Czechoslovakia, the No. 3 seed, will meet Belgium in the first round of the Federation Cup women’s tennis tournament, which begins Sunday.

The U.S.-Greece and Czechoslovakia-Belgium matches will not be played until Oct. 3 in the women’s version of the Davis Cup tournament, the organizers said today.

Forty nations will compete in the eight-day tournament on the hard courts of Ariake Colosseum.

The four-member U.S. team includes Martina Navratilova, ranked second in the world; Chris Evert, No. 4; Zina Garrison, No. 6, and Pam Shriver, No. 11, the organizers said.

Helena Sukova, No. 8, leads the Czechoslovak team. The top Greek player is Angeliki Kanellopoulou, No. 74, and Sandra Wasserman, No. 66, leads the Belgian team.

In another first-round match, second-seeded Spain, led by Arantxa Sanchez, No. 5, faces France, led by Nathalie Tauziat, No. 22.

Fourth-seeded Bulgaria, captained by Manuela Maleeva, takes on the winner of a preliminary round match between South Korea and Israel.

Steffi Graf, ranked No. 1 in the world, heads the fifth-seeded West German team, which faces Finland, led by Petra Thoren, No. 179.

The sixth-seeded Soviet Union, led by Natalia Zvereva, No. 14, takes on Switzerland.