TOKYO (AP) -- Defending champion and top-seeded Martina Hingis moved a step closer Saturday in her bid for an unprecedented third straight Toray Pan Pacific Open title.

The world's top-ranked women's player defeated eighth-seeded and 25th-ranked Bulgarian Magdaleva Maleeva 6-3, 1-6, 6-0 in the semifinals of the 18th annual women's tournament.

In Sunday's final, Hingis meets second-seeded and second-ranked American Lindsay Davenport, who ousted third-seeded Anna Kournikova of Russia 6-1, 6-7 (5), 6-0.

Hingis, the runner-up in the Australian Open last week, first won Toray in 1997 at age 16, and Davenport triumphed the next year before Hingis won in 1999-00.

For Davenport, it is her first time in three years to reach the Toray final. She skipped the tournament with leg injuries last year. In 1999, the then-defending champion was eliminated in the quarterfinals by Amanda Coetzer of South Africa.

That loss cost Davenport her No. 1 world ranking, with Hingis winning her second Toray trophy and getting back the top position on the WTA rankings.

This time, their world rankings will not change even if Davenport wins the final.

Against a resilient Maleeva, who once was the world's No. 4 player, Hingis started by breaking serve the opening game, but she was broken right back.

Hingis got another break in the fifth game, and Maleeva's hope of winning the set evaporated when she had five break points slip away in the eighth.

Maleeva was a different player in the second set, running Hingis from corner to corner.

``You lose one serve, and all of a sudden you're down 3-0,'' Hingis said of her setback in the second set. ``I also haven't played Maggie in a long time, so I didn't exactly know what to expect, and she hit some great shots.''

``Then from being down 3-0, 4-0, you're maybe more focused already playing the third set again,'' she said. ``I knew it's going to be very hard .... and I tried to save my energy and power for the third, and it paid off.''

Davenport, of Newport Beach, Calif., took the first set easily and was leading 5-3 when Kournikova came back in the second, breaking serve in the ninth game en route to a tiebreaker.

In the third set, Davenport served four aces.

``I was up 6-1 and 5-3, but all of a sudden it was 5-all and I actually didn't think I did anything wrong. Sometimes you have leads and you miss some balls and you let the person back in,'' Davenport said. ``But I thought it was really more because of her than me.''

Of Sunday's final, Davenport said, ``If you look at the overall record of Martina and I, it's very close. I think it's something like 13 wins for me and 11 losses ... We've done that our whole careers.

``So I think Martina is always trying to get better, and throughout our careers we've had very tough matches. Some I win, some I lose and, hopefully I'll go out there tomorrow trying to play my best. It's very tough to always beat Martina because you have to play so well every time. But I'll go out and try and play like I have this week, and hopefully it'll work out.''