Update: (Sat, Aug. 11) - Ivo Karlovic has gained direct entry into the main draw. After Canada's Frank Dancevic was eliminated from the Rogers Masters in Montreal, there was no need to reserve a 'special exemption' place in the main draw of the Western & Southern Financial Group Masters. Although the Cincinnati qualifying draw had already been made, Karlovic (who was the highest-ranked player in the qualifying draw) was elevated to the main draw because no matches had commenced.

MASON - August 8, 2007 - Two winners of ATP titles this year and three former top ten players highlight a very strong qualifying field for the 2007 Western & Southern Financial Group Masters, the tournament announced today.

Ivo Karlovic, who has won titles at Nottingham and Houston this year, is among those who have indicated they will play the qualifying draw August 11-12 at the Lindner Family Tennis Center in Mason. The seven players who win two matches in the 28-man field will secure a berth in the main draw of the $2.45 million ATP Masters Series event, which will be played August 13-19.

Joining Karlovic will be Gilles Simon, who captured this year's title at Marseille. Other notable players will include Sebastien Grosjean, Nicholas Lapentti and Nicholas Massu, all of whom have been ranked in the top 10 (at 4, 6 and 9 respectively) during their careers.

"This is one of the best qualifying draws we have ever seen in Cincinnati," tournament director Bruce Flory said. "We expect some changes to this list, but this is an excellent start." Flory added that some of the players in the preliminary qualifier field will be considered for one of four wild cards into the main draw and may not be forced to play qualifying.

Here are the direct acceptances, their rankings as of August 8, and their main draw records at Cincinnati to date:

Player	Nat	Rnk	Rec.	2007 Results
Karlovic, Ivo	CRO	34	2-1	W at Nottingham & Houston; F at San Jose & Surbiton (CH); SF at Washington
Simon, Gilles	FRA	40	2-2	W at Marseille; SF at Sopot; QF at Bastad & Umag
Andreev, Igor	RUS	43	0-1	SF at Gstaad; QF at French Open, Amersfoort, Sopot & Vina del Mar
Spadea, Vincent	USA	57	10-8	SF at Delray Beach; QF at Estoril, Los Angeles, Newport, Houston & San Jose
Benneteau, Julien	FRA	59	0-1	SF at ‘s-Hertogenbosch; QF at Marseille, Casablanca; R16 at AMS Indian Wells
Rochus, Olivier	BEL	61	1-2	QF at Dubai, Doha & Bastad; R16 at The Netherlands & Auckland
Llodra, Michael	FRA	62	0-1	F at Heilbronn (CH); QF at Zagreb & Noumea (CH); R16 at San Remo (CH)
Lopez, Feliciano	ESP	64	4-2	SF at Stuttgart; QF at Las Vegas; R16 at AMS Miami, Gstaad & San Jose
Massu, Nicolas	CHI	65	0-0	F at Vina del Mar; SF at Sunrise (CH); QF at Acapulco;
Mahut, Nicolas	FRA	69	0-1	F at Queen’s Club & Newport; R16 at Casablanca, Marseille & Chennai
Seppi, Andreas	ITA	72	0-1	F at Gstaad & Sunrise (CH); QF at Kitzbuhel
Grosjean, Sebastien	FRA	73	8-1	QF at Munich & Casablanca; R16 at Nottingham
Del Potro, Juan Martin	ARG	75	0-0	SF at Adelaide; QF at Nottingham; R16 at AMS Miami
Serra, Florent	FRA	77	1-2	QF at Amersfoort; R16 at Dubai
Delic, Amer	USA	78	0-0	QF at Zagreb (CH); R16 at AMS Miami, Memphis, Nottingham, Houston
Lapentti, Nicolas	ECU	79	7-2	QF at Kitzbuhel; R16 at Poertschach
Korolev, Evgeny	RUS	80	0-0	SF at Las Vegas; QF at Amersfoort & Sydney; R16 at Memphis & Halle
Garcia-Lopez, Guillermo	ESP	86	0-0	QF at Estoril, Nottingham & Delray Beach; R16 at Monte-Carlo & Doha
Gabashvili, Teimuraz	RUS	94	0-0	QF at Memphis; R16 at Indianapolis & Nottingham
Mirnyi, Max	BLR	96	7-9	QF at Doha; R16 at AMS Monte-Carlo & Queen’s Club
Kendrick, Robert	USA	102	0-1	W at Dallas (CH); F at Naples (CH)
Dancevic, Frank	CAN	91	0-0	F at Indianapolis & Bermuda (CH)
Cilic, Marin	CRO	115	0-0	W at Casablanca (CH) & Rijeka (CH); QF at Queen's Club
Moodie, Wesley	RSA	121	1-3	SF at Newport

American Wayne Odesnik and Ernests Gulbis of Latvia have each been granted one of the four qualifier wild card entries. Gulbis has won two challenger events this year, while Odesnik defeated world No. 11 Ivan Ljubicic on Monday in the first round of Rogers Cup, the ATP Masters event in Montreal.

If any of these 26 are unable to play, the first player who will get into the qualifier field is South African Wesley Moodie, a semifinalist at Newport this year.

Other alternates include Americans Alex Bogomolov, Jesse Witten, Justin Gimelstob, Scoville Jenkins and Scott Oudsema.

The qualifier is a 28-man draw, with the seven players who win two matches proceeding to the main draw. All qualifier matches will be scheduled for Saturday, August 11 & Sunday, August 12 at the Lindner Family Tennis Center in Mason, Ohio (located just north of downtown Cincinnati).

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