Serena Williams and Victoria Azarenka meet in Montreal while Novak Djokovic closes in on title nine of 2011.

Notes: Top-seeded Hot Sauce opens against American wildcard Rajeev Ram, to face the winner of Karlovic vs. Ryan Sweeting…Jamaican-turned-German Dustin Brown starts against “The” Donald Young, and (4) Malisse vs. Raonic…Verdasco is 5-0 career in San Jose, last year beating Andy Roddick in the final…Verdasco (2010) and Hewitt (2002) only returning champions in the field…No player has ever won three straight San Jose titles, but winning two in a row: Andy Murray, Andy Roddick, Mark Philippoussis, Pete Sampras, John McEnroe.

Kuznetsova is the defending champ, and Wozniacki could take over the No. 1 spot on the WTA Rankings this week with a deep run. Wozniacki is 0-6 career against the Williams sisters. The only four Top 20 players missing are the Williams sisters, Clijsters and Justine Henin.

Oudin will next face No. 29 seed Alona Bondarenko, who defeated Vera Dushevina 6-0, 5-7, 6-4.

Loaded non-seeded field with former No. 1s Ivanovic and Safina, and former No. 2 Kuznetsova unseeded; first-round match-ups of interest are (6) Bartoli vs. Hantuchova, (7) Peer vs. (WC) Ivanovic, (8) Wickmayer vs. Kuznetsova, and potential second-round match-ups after seeded byes (1) Jankovic vs. Rezai and Stosur vs. Azarenka or Oudin

Andy Murray is on track for his first Los Angeles title.

“They have strawberries on them, too,” Serena said in response to the question, or rather a statement, that her nails looked good. “If I would have thought about it, I would have put a strawberry instead of a heart. They’re hearts. I don’t know why I didn’t think of it sooner. I could have had a strawberry.”

World No. 1 Serena Williams actually has a difficult draw. She will start against the screamer Michelle Larcher de Brito, then probably meet former Top 10er Anna Chakvetadze in the second round. No. 25 Lucie Safarova or Dominika Cibulkova await after that, then a fourth-round showdown with Sharapova. Pencil in No. 9 seed Na Li to be waiting for Serena in the quarterfinals.

The tight Stosur could seemingly not let loose on her biggest weapons, the forehand and the high-kicking serve, and at 4-4 in the first set threw in a doubles fault on game point to hand the Italian the first set. In the second set Schiavone tested the Aussie’s nerve by repeatedly charging the net. The payoff — Schiavone becomes the first winner of the French Open from outside the Top 10 since 1933.

The surprise pairing of Francesca Schiavone and Sam Stosur will compete for the 2010 French Open clay tennis title in just a few hours in Paris, France.