Notes: Three former No. 1s among the seeds…No Williams sisters but plenty of Top 10ers and floaters…The Top 4 seeds receive opening-round byes…Tough openers for (1) Azarenka after a bye against Pennetta or Schiavone, (4) Vinci after a bye likely against the veteran Mattek-Sands, (7) Ivanovic vs. Cibulkova, (5) Stosur vs. the rolling Lepchenko, and (2) Radwanska after a bye likely vs. the veteran Hantuchova…Wildcards went to American Allie Kiick, France’s Virginie Razzano, and Stosur…Pulling from the event were Marion Bartoli, Kirsten Flipkens, Bojana Jovanovski, Kristina Mladenovic and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova…Martina Hingis and Hantuchova received a wildcard in doubles…Cibulkova beat Bartoli in the final last year…Returning champions in the field are Cibulkova (2012), Radwanska (2011), and Kuznetsova (2010).

Notes: Two-time defending champ Serena Williams obviously didn’t like the under-the-table appearance fee to appear in Stanford, passing on the event and last week playing the tiny Swedish Open in Bastad, which was willing to pony-up some major cash…Tough starts are (1) Radwanska after a bye possibly facing the former Slam champ Schiavone, (8) Rybarikova vs. the explosive Keys, and (2) Stosur after a bye likely facing the powerful Goerges….Wildcards went to American Nicole Gibbs and Croat Ajla Tomljanovic…Pulling from the event were Marion Bartoli (hamstring), Kirsten Flipkens, Sabine Lisicki (wrist), and Maria Sharapova (hip)…Since 1990, 20 of the 23 champions have been Slam winners, but this year there are no returning champions in the field.

Players are getting their first taste of the smurf turf in Madrid.

Here’s Sorana Cirstea training for Dancing With the Stars.

Sorana Cirstea will appear on Dancing with the Stars.

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

It was the first appearance in a Slam quarterfinal for the Slovak. For Sharapova it was an unexpected run after injury on her worst surface, where her movement remains a liability.

On tap for Tuesday quarterfinal play are (1) Dinara Safina vs. (9) Victoria Azarenka, and (20) Dominika Cibulkova vs. unseeded former No. 1 Maria Sharapova.