Finally got a chance to kick back at home after a long day of not only putting together a story for Thursday's paper on the day's player movement updates but finishing the retrospective of the previous 19 tournaments held at the Connecticut Tennis Center. That will be prominently featured in Friday's edition of the Register as the tournament holds its 20th ATP or WTA or in the current case both ATP and WTA event.

The biggest surprise of the day is that James Blake did not enter and it is looking like he won't be entering. Sorry, I just don't get it. He needs some matches, a bit of confidence or something because what he's been doing recently just isn't working. I realize he just came back from a foot injury and perhaps it is more serious than we are being led to believe and he believes playing in New Haven would seriously jeapordize his chance to compete at the U.S. Open. If that is not the case, Blake is being downright foolish. He has a chance to fine tune his game which is a complete and utter mess at the current time while playing in front of friends and family at a tournament he credits for jumpstarting his career. If the foot is OK then something just isn't adding up here.

Surprise No. 2 was the tournament giving its second women's wild card to Meghann Shaughnessy, ranked 915th, over No. 12 Nadia Petrova. I know Shaughnessy is an American and the Pilot Pen is a USTA event and has been a regular competitor at the tournament (this will be her ninth appearance in the singles main draw). I realize she has had to deal with a knee injury which sidelined her for long stretches but she hasn't won a WTA level match since 2007. Meanwhile Petrova was in the top 10 earlier this summer and would add even more depth to the field. Petrova is still in line to get a wild card tomorrow but if she doesn't, will it hurt the tournament's chances to get Petrova to commit to the event in the future?

I fully expected Svetlana Kuznetsova to enter the tournament after her loss to Samantha Stosur in Toronto and she did. She will likely be the No. 1 seed in the tournament just as she was in 2007 when she won the title in New Haven.

When I spoke to Pilot Pen Tennis tournament director Anne Worcester in the late afternoon, she threw a lot of names of players she is pursuing.

The ones she threw out there on the women's side - No. 1 Dinara Safina, No. 7 Vera Zvonareva, No. 11 Ana Ivanovic and No. 22 Daniela Hantuchova are certainly interesting. Safina seems like little more than a hope and a prayer by Worcester even with her loss today but Worcester will never be accused to leaving things to chance, that's for sure. If top players don't come to the tournament, it is certainly not because Worcester has forgotten about them. Ivanovic's chances for entering just went up significantly after losing to Lucie Safarova Wednesday night. I haven't seen the order of play for tomorrow yet but with a 4 p.m. women's wild-card deadline, Zvonareva will need to have an early match and lose to even consider asking for a wild card. It is promising that both have reached out to the tournament to express an interest. If Hantuchova requests one, Worcester is in a tough spot. Because neither Petrova nor Hantuchova finished 2008 in the top 10, the Pilot Pen would have to pick between them. Of course they could enter, go to the top of the "next in" list and hope for a withdrawal. Ivanovic and Zvonareva did end up in the year-end top 10 in 2008 and since two of the wild cards are for top 10 players, Worcester can give one of them a spot and still have one wild card remaining for Petrova or whoever else throws their name into the fray. If no top 10 player enters, Ai Sugiyama would most likely move into the main draw.

Venus Williams just is not going to happen. Despite her early loss in Toronto, she is content to rest up for the Open and get her preparation on the practice courts.

On the men's side, she mentioned Lleyton Hewitt (not happening now that he won today), Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (if he wasn't still alive in the Cincinnati doubles draw I would saw he was an option) and Fernando Verdasco. I could see the Verdasco thing happening, in fact I will be surprised if it doesn't get done. Verdasco has played this summer but has not had an outlandish number of matches. He has also taken a shine to playing in New Haven, playing each year since the ATP returned to the Elm City in 2005. He was a semifinalist last year and twice before reached the quarterfinals.

Robby Ginepri and Marin Cilic are definitely not options, both confirming they are not interested in wild cards. Cilic was more of a surprise than Ginepri since Cilic has been struggling a bit and he did win the title here last year.

That is only half the deal, however. With every player suffering early losses becoming a potential wild card request, those advancing deep into this week's tournaments are potential withdrawal candidates. When you look at players like Samantha Stosur and Sam Querrey (who just finished off Andy Roddick in Cincinnati) who have played a ton of tennis this summer, I'm sure the tournament organizers won't rest easily until they actually see them on site.

The women's wild card deadline is 4 p.m. on Thursday with the men having until noon on Friday so expect another hectic day tomorrow. It's looking like both singles draws will be pulled in the early afternoon on Friday.

Going out on a limb and predicting that the women's wild cards go to Ivanovic and Petrova and the men's wild cards to Verdasco and Marcos Baghdatis (although one of the young Americans), here's what the top 10 seeds could look like
MEN WOMEN
8 Nikolay Davydenko 6 Svetlana Kuznetsova
9 Gilles Simon 8 Caroline Wozniacki
10 Fernando Verdasco* 10 Flavia Pennetta
16 Tommy Robredo 11 Ana Ivanovic*
19 David Ferrer 12 Nadia Petrova*
22 Mardy Fish 13 Agnieszka Radwanska
26 Sam Querrey 14 Marion Bartoli
27 Igor Andreev 15 Dominika Cibulkova
28 Victor Hanescu 16 Amelie Mauresmo
33 Nicolas Almagro 17 Samantha Stosur
(*-not yet officially in the field)

Would the tournament love to have a Williams sister or two? James Blake and Andy Roddick? Absolutely. But considering the tournament following two mandatory events and is followed by the U.S. Open, that's a high quality field. We'll see if ticket buyers agree.

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.

As previously reported in the New Haven Register, former top 10 players Richard Gasquet and Marcos Baghdatis along with red-hot John Isner (fresh off his win over Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in Washington) have requested men's singles main-draw wild cards.

There are media outlets both in France and the U.S. reporting that Gasquet will return to the tour in New Haven after successfully appealing his suspension after cocaine was found in his system during a drug test. However, this could be the tennis version of putting the cart before the horse.

The Pilot Pen has four men's wild cards. One has been promised to Taylor Dent and Isner is almost certain to get one as well considering his recent surge. Isner, slowed by mononucleosis earlier in the year, reached the semifinals in Indianapolis, quarterfinals in Los Angeles and he will play Tomas Berdych in the final of the four quarterfinals tonight in D.C. James Blake's foot injury forced him to pull out of the D.C. event as well as the next tour stop in Montreal and it is looking more and more likely that he would request a wild card for some match preparation heading into the U.S. Open. That would leave one wild card left and if veteran American Robby Ginepri, who won the Indianapolis title last month, were to ask for one I don't see how the tournament, which is run by the USTA, would tell him "no thanks" and give one to Gasquet. I realize that is a lot of "what ifs" but the point is that Gasquet has not been given a wild card yet.

With Nikolay Davydenko beating Paul-Henri Mathieu in the Hamburg, Germany final, the Pilot Pen men's field now has two top 10 players.

Davydenko was already entered and ranked 11th at the time that the direct entries were announced. He actually dropped a spot last week to 12th but Davydenko's 15th career ATP title brings with it an additional 500 points.

While math is always my strong point and the ranking system is a little more confusing this year because only a certain among of smaller tournament (like the Pilot Pen) can count toward the ranking points and last year's Olympics altered the order of the summer events. But if I am following everything correctly, Davydenko will move from No. 12 to 9, Fernando Verdasco will fall a place to No. 10 followed by Fernando Gonzalez and Robin Soderling.

Here is how I reached that conclusion.

Davydenko loses 150 points from last year's U.S. Open Series event in Canada (which will come off the rankings on Monday) but gains 500 for winning the Hamburg title moving him from 2,935 to 3,285.

Verdasco began the week with 3,270 points and the 70 points he earned in Canada last year will come off the database putting him at 3,200.

Gonzalez loses 70 points from his result in Canada in 2008 and should have 3,115 while Soderling drops the 150 points he gained in Canada to check in with 2,920.

Considering that Davydenko only loses 50 points from the 2008 Olympics (which will fall from the rankings on Aug. 15) and the only points he has to defend the rest of the summer are the 10 points from Cincinnati, he figures to be in the top 10 for a while.

Pilot Pen commit Sam Querrey could also continue his rise up the rankings today if he beats fellow American Robby Ginepri in the Indianapolis final. If Querrey wins, he could end up jumping seven spots to No. 30 and could end up at No. 32 even with a loss. Ginepri, who is on the New Haven alternate list and would seem to be a lock for a wild card into the Pilot Pen main draw if he is so inclined, would jump 19 spots to No. 76 with a loss today while he would break into the top 60 if he wins the title. The Querrey/Ginepri final will be televised live at 3 p.m. on ESPN2 with the winner taking the early lead in the U.S. Open Series standings.