The WTA Tour U.S. leg of the 2006 claycourt swing continues to struggle this week in Charleston at the Family Circle Cup, which receives essentially the same no-marquee field as last week in Amelia Island, save for the addition of defending champion Justine Henin-Hardenne.
Charleston feels the brunt of the injury-ravaged WTA schedule, with both Williams sisters withdrawing after injury,
Martina Hingis electing to take another week off, and many of the big names resting up for the first round of the Fed Cup competition next week.
Henin-Hardenne is joined among the Top 8 seeds by Russians
Nadia Petrova,
Svetlana Kuznetsova (if the former US Open champ doesn't pull with her leg injury) and
Dinara Safina, Swiss
Patty Schnyder, Czech teen
Nicole Vaidisova, German Anna-Lena Groenefeld, and France's
Nathalie Dechy.
Wildcards for the event went to Georgian
Anna Tatishvili, and Americans
Shenay Perry,
Neha Uberoi, and
Meghann Shaughnessy.
In last year's final the unseeded Henin-Hardenne defeated No. 2-seeded Russian
Elena Dementieva 7-5, 6-4.
