The strongest women's qualifying field in the history of the Pilot Pen features rising American star Melanie Oudin and former top 20 players Maria Kirilenko, Shahar Peer and Tamarine Tanasugarn.

The top seed in qualifying is No. 41 Sara Errani, who reached finals at Palermo (Italy) and Portoroz (Slovenia) last month. Errani was a lucky loser in last year’s Pilot Pen and reached second round before losing in three sets to Agnes Szavay.

The second seed is No. 45 Magdalena Rybarikova owns four top 20 wins including victories over Jie Zheng and Na Li en route to first career title at Birmingham, England.

No. 91 Kirsten Flipkens is the last player to gain direct entry into qualifying.

Among those on the alternate list are 2004 Pilot Pen women's singles champion Elena Bovina, who would need a wild card since she is currently the No. 52 alternate and Karolina Sprem, who peaked at No. 17 in the rankings back in 2004. Alexa Glatch, Vania King, Julie Ditty, Madison Brengle, Lauren Albanese, Lilia Osterloh and NCAA singles champion Mallory Cecil, who emerged out of qualifying to reach the main draw of the 2008 Pilot Pen, are among the Americans on the alternate list.