The development was that Montreal’s star power suddenly began to dip with all the pull-outs, and Lapierre came back to Ivanovic with the wildcard offer — which she promptly told him, in so many words, to stick up his ass.

The sadly-slowing American drumbeat goes on this week at the Western & Southern Financial Group Women’s Open. World No. 1 Serena Williams is sidelined with a cut foot, and elder sister Venus is out with a tweaked knee. No Americans are seeded, and only one American, Melanie Oudin, got directly into the main draw via her ranking (barely).

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

Justine Henin and Samantha Stosur will play for the 2010 Stuttgart title.

Justine Henin upped her perfect record to 10-0 against Jelena Jankovic today in the Stuttgart quarterfinals.

Wow, two unseeded former No. 1s in Henin and Ivanovic; lots o’ first-round meetings of interest…

Popular American Andy Roddick and James Blake meet in a rare first round match in Memphis tonight.

WATCH OUT FOR MY EXPLODING HEAD — Serena Williams on keeping the No. 1 ranking in 2010: “I don’t think about it a lot. I’ve got a lot on my plate. Everyone assumes that I’m No. 1 anyway.”

“In my opinion there is no danger that the tournament will be pulled,” McLoughlin says.

The second week of the interesting “Mexico Swing” on the new WTA Tour calendar, which is down time for most all of the top players who have taken the two weeks off to prepare for tournaments at Indian Wells and Miami.