NEW YORK -- Martina Navratilova, with special cause to celebrate, will be the top seed this week in the world's richest tennis tournament for women.
It is more than five years since Navratilova defected from Czechoslovakia, and she is expecting to hear at any time now from the State Department as to when she will receive her U.S. citizenship.
'I love America,' she said unabashedly last week. 'When I was here for the first time in 1973, I thought that I would like to live here, whether I was playing tennis or not. Now I want to stay.'
Ironically, it is another Czech sensation who could cost Navratilova the $100,000 first prize in the $300,000 championship, which begins Wednesday in Madison Square Garden.
Hana Mandlikova, one of the youngsters who took advantage of the tennis boom created in Czechoslovakia as a result of Navratilova's successes, moved into the top echelon of players last year, beating Martina twice within the space of days, including at the U.S. Open.
The field is limited to the eight players who compiled the best point totals during the 10-city winter circuit. The championship is a double elimination format, with four singles on Wednesday beginning at 10 a.m. EST.
There will be four more singles matches on Thursday, starting at 6 p.m., with two singles on Friday (6 p.m.) and two on Saturday (noon). The consolation singles and final will be played Sunday, beginning at noon.
The tournament is known as the Avon Championships.
Navratilova and Tracy Austin met in the final the last two years, with Martina winning in 1979 and Austin getting her revenge in 1980. Austin, though, has been sidelined by back problems for most of this year, and will not be back to defend her title.
Joining Navratilova and Mandlikova in the field are Andrea Jaeger, Barbara Potter, West German Sylvia Hanika, Bettina Bunge and Leslie Allen.
The final two berths were to be determined by a tournament which concludes Sunday in Boston. Allen clinched one of them.
Entering this final qualifying competition, Pam Shriver and Allen held the seventh and eighth positions. Allen lost in the second round to Hanika, but earned enough points to climb ahead of Shriver, who did not play Boston. After three rounds, Virginia Ruzici, Mima Jausovec, Kathy Jordan and Peanut Louie still had a chance to bump Shriver from the elite eight for the New York championship if they were to win at Boston.
