As hard as it is to believe, at this time next week day one of the 2009 Pilot Pen Tennis tournament will be in the books.

Between now and Friday, the final six wild card spots (two on the men's side and four on the women) will be announced and I'm sure tournament officials are hoping that will be the only player movement.

The draws of the women's event in Montreal and men's tournament in Cincinnati came out on Friday and there are some matchups which could impact which players request wild cards.

On the women's side, Pilot Pen Tennis tournament director has been reaching out to Ana Ivanovic, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Nadia Petrova and Daniela Hantuchova (among others) based on their summer results or lack of results in most cases.

Considering that Petrova, who will fall out of the top 10 when the rankings come out on Monday, has to play Maria Sharapova, Kuznetsova could draw red-hot Samantha Stosur in the second round while Hantuchova will have to play Serena Williams if she beats a qualifier in her first match, the odds of those three requesting wild cards seems to be pretty good. Ivanovic, however, seems to have a favorable draw. She will play a qualifier in the first round, either Kaia Kanepi or another qualifier in the second round and possibly Caroline Wozniacki in the third round if that portion of the draw plays out according to form.

On the men's side, two-time champion James Blake is at the top of the tournament's wish list. I haven't heard any updates on Blake's injured foot which forced him to pull out of the tournaments in Washington and Canada but if he is healthy, he seems to have a favorable draw. Blake, who is unseeded in Cincinnati, will face Igor Kunitsyn in the first round. Among the other players in his portion of the bracket, Blake has a winning record again all six of them including a 7-0 mark against Nikolay Davydenko and 6-0 record versus Igor Andreev so a run to the quarterfinals is not out of the question. If he does win at least three matches, it is possible Blake will deem that enough match preparation for the upcoming U.S. Open.

Another player to watch is defending Pilot Pen champion Marin Cilic. Cilic has not been making waves about playing in New Haven but he lost to No. 153 Somdev Devvarman in Washington and fell to Mikhail Youzhny in his opener in Canada. Cilic has to play former world No. 1 Juan Carlos Ferrero, who has been playing inspired tennis this summer, in the first round so a third straight first-round exit is not out of the question.

Gael Monfils, who has been making some noise about playing in New Haven, drew hard-serving Ivo Karlovic in the first round in Cincinnati while American Robby Ginepri will have to play Marat Safin in the opening round. Another intriguing first-round showdown in Cincinnati (or Mason, Ohio to be exact) features Lleyton Hewitt against Robin Soderling.

PAIGE IMPRESSIVE AT NATIONALS
After winning two matches in the main draw of the USTA 16-and-under national championships in Kalamazoo, Mich., Hopkins rising sophomore Nolan Paige was denied a spot in the quarterfinals by Robert Stineman. But the Fairfield resident and reigning Register Area Boys' Tennis MVP, rebounded by winning four matches in the "feed in" portion of the draw including victories over seeded players Spencer Simon and Mitchell Krueger. He will face Nick Chappell in the quarterfinals of the consolation bracket next meaning Paige can finish no worse than 12th out of the 256 players in the signature 16-and-under event on the USTA junior calendar.