Potential tough starts for (1) Kerber vs. homegirl (WC) Broady, (10) Ostapenko vs. Makarova, (3) Pliskova vs. the Riske/Cornet winner, (8) Radwanska vs. the Goerges/Bellis winner, (11) Muguruza vs. Bouchard, and (6) Wozniacki vs. the Japanese riser Osaka…

Six of the Top 10 in attendance…Lots of unseeded floaters including a former No. 1 and a Slam winner…

Last year Pliskova was a two-time title winner, raising trophies at Nottingham and Cincinnati, where she denied Angelique Kerber the No. 1 ranking in the final.

“[It was] one of the best trophies I am going to win,” Pliskova said.

Venus the lone Top 10 player ahead of the No. 12 Cibulkova…(8) Lepchenko a tough start against Riske…Wildcards went to Americans Catherine Bellis, Julia Boserup, Maria Mateas, and Canada’s Carol Zhao…

Tough starts for (9) Stephens vs. Vekic and (9) Cornet vs. Kudryavtseva…The storm of players pulling from the field included Daria Gavrilova, Camila Giorgi, Yanina Wickmayer and Caroline Wozniacki…

Two Top 10ers in the field, in addition to two former No. 1s…The Top 8 seeds receive opening-round byes…Potential tough starts for (9) Jankovic vs. Garcia and (3) Venus Williams vs. Riske…Wildcards were awarded to Americans Frances Altick, Louisa Chirico and Shelby Rogers…

Let’s play “Guess Who Got the Appearance Cash?” with Venus as the top seed, and the No. 62-ranked Doi seeded second…No Top 10 seeds in the field…Remove Venus, and this would essentially be an ITF-level field…Potentially tricky starts for (8) Riske vs. the Croat riser Vekic, and (2) Doi vs. the lesser Pliskova…Wildcards stayed in-country to Chinese-Taipei’s Hsu Ching-Wen, Lee Pei-Chi and Lee Ya-Hsuan…

Top-seeded Sloane Stephens withdrew from the event after the draw was made…Now no Top 30 players in the field…Possible tough starts for (4) Niculescu vs. McHale, and (2) Giorgi vs. Diyas, who found herself seeded as numerous events last year…Bouchard in the lower half ready to meet the No. 8 and 2 seeds early…

Top-seeded Garbine Muguruza pulled from the event after winning Beijing, forcing a shuffle of the draw…(2) Kerber will start against the former Slam winner Schiavone…Seeds Kerber, Jankovic and Stosur received wildcards…Also pulling from the event were Victoria Azarenka, Eugenie Bouchard, Zarina Diyas, Sabine Lisicki, Ajla Tomljanovic, and Coco Vandeweghe…No former champs are in the field…In last year’s final Lisicki topped Karolina Pliskova.

Contrary to what commentator Chris Evert says, Serena Williams is the GOAT. She, the Martinas, everyone else is out. But having said that, the odds are against Serena that she is going to win the US Open and complete the calendar year Grand Slam. The pressure build up is too great.

Sixteen of the Top 17 turn out this coming week for the Rogers Cup in Toronto, where world No. 1 Serena Williams will test the right elbow injury that has forced her to withdraw from her last two tournaments.

All 16 seeds receive opening-round byes, but some potential interesting second-rounders with (12) Pospisil vs. (WC) Haas, (4) Gasquet vs. the hot-handed Muller, break-up boy (6) Dimitrov vs. the resurgent Baghdatis, and (7) Lopez vs. (WC) Hewitt on his retirement tour…

Tough starts for (1) Venus in the 2nd rd. vs. the Bastad runner-up Barthel, (4) Cornet vs. Wickmayer, (5) Giorgi vs. Cibulkova, and (2) Svitolina vs. Rybarikova…Veterans Daniela Hantuchova and Francesca Schiavone also floating around…Wildcards went to Turkey’s Cagla Buyukakcay and Ipek Soylu, and the No. 4 seed Cornet…Pulling from the event were Belinda Bencic, Alexandra Dulgheru, Kristina Mladenovic, Monica Niculescu and Flavia Pennetta…Top-seeded Caroline Wozniacki beat No. 2 Roberta Vinci in last year’s final…Pavlyuchenkova (2010) is the lone returning former champ in the field.

Four Top 10 players on the WTA tour take to the grass in Birmingham, while Roger Federer leads in Halle, and Andy Murray, French Open champ Stan Wawrinka and Rafael Nadal at the Queen’s Club during week #2 of the 2015 grasscourt season.