With just a week to go until this year's US Women's Open two former champions will be looking for confidence-boosting performances over the next few days.

Britons Laura Davies and Alison Nicholas are both competing in the ShopRite LPGA Classic, which starts in Atlantic City on Saturday.

Davies goes into the tournament on the back of an 84 in the Rochester Classic in New York, while Nicholas has been struggling for form all season.

Davies went into the final round last Sunday in third place before falling apart.

Firm favourite

"I don't really know what happened, just everything seemed to go wrong," she said. "But this is a new week."

Sweden's Annika Sorenstam, winner of the Evian Masters in France two weeks ago, returns from a week's break and is favourite to collect her seventh title of the year.

The tournament also marks the long-awaited comeback from injury for American Dottie Pepper.

Pepper underwent shoulder surgery in the winter and has not played since last November.

Happy memories

However, she wants to play in the US Open and also has her sights set on a seventh Solheim Cup in Minnesota in September.

Pepper, the player the Europeans love to hate, has played in every Solheim to date, and is determined to try to help the US regain the trophy from Dale Reid's Europe side.

Scotland's Janice Moodie clinched her first LPGA title at this tournament in 2000.

It was her first LPGA title. She won her second - the Asahi Ryokuken International in Augusta - last month.