MASON – The initial qualifier field announced today for the Western & Southern Financial Group Women’s Open is stronger than the main draw field for the 2008 W&SFG Women’s Open. Last year’s main draw had a cutoff of 99, while this year’s qualifier field has a cutoff of 90.

The acceptance list for the women’s qualifier includes a young American who upset current world No. 5 Jelena Jankovic en route to the Round of 16 at Wimbledon this year, two former W&SFG Women’s Open main-draw semifinalists and six players who’ve reached a singles final on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour this year.

“The qualifier is the warm-up act to the main attraction, but since the Western & Southern Financial Group Women’s Open is at the Premier Level on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour the quality of tennis in the qualifier here will be extraordinary,” said tournament director Bruce Flory. “We expect a few changes to this list, but this is an excellent start.”

The women’s qualifier will feature a 32-player draw and the eight women who win three matches in the qualifying rounds will be placed in the main draw. Women’s qualifying is August 8 & 9 at the Lindner Family Tennis Center in Mason and tickets are $5 and free for kids 14 and under.  

Here are the 28 women who have gained direct acceptance into the qualifier and their rankings as of July 20:

Player	From	Rnk
Pavlyuchenkova, Anastasia	RUS	35
Rezai, Aravane	FRA	39
Vinci, Roberta	ITA	45
Groenefeld, Anna-Lena	GER	50
Czink, Melinda	HUN	52
Wickmayer, Yanina	BEL	55
Garbin, Tathiana	ITA	56
Shvedova, Yaroslava	KAZ	57
Groth, Jarmila	SVK	58
Kvitova, Petra	CZE	60
Peer, Shahar	ISR	62
Coin, Julie	FRA	63
Morita, Ayumi	JPN	64
Govortsova, Olga	BLR	65
Bondarenko, Kateryna	UKR	68
Radwanska, Urszula	POL	70
Oudin, Melanie	USA	71
Craybas, Jill	USA	73
Dulgheru, Alexandra	ROU	74
Malek, Tatjana	GER	77
Kutuzova, Viktoriya	UKR	78
Mattek-Sands, Bethanie	USA	81
Mirza, Sania	IND	83
Lepchenko, Varvara	USA	86
Larcher de Brito, Michelle	POR	90
Kudryavtseva, Alla	RUS	91
Dominguez Lino, Lourdes	ESP	94

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