Hingis won her fourth Pan Pacific Open with a three-set victory over Seles in Sunday's final of the $1.2 million indoor event.

The top-seed from Switzerland topped Seles, 7-6 (8-6), 4-6, 6-3, in a rematch of last week's Australian Open semifinal and captured her second title of the year. She won the adidas International in Sydney to start the season.

Playing in her sixth straight final here, Hingis rallied twice to take the first-set tiebreaker and, after losing the second set, gained the upper hand in the deciding set with a break of serve in the second game.

"It was a great match," said Hingis, who earned $182,000. "I could have served better, but I'm happy with how I played."

The 21-year-old Hingis improved to 14-4 lifetime against Seles. Last week, she defeated the American in three sets before wasting four championship points and suffering a 4-6, 7-6 (9-7), 6-2 loss to Jennifer Capriati in the Australian Open final.

Hingis notched her 40th WTA Tour title and her first Tier I championship since the Kremlin Cup in Moscow in 2000. She is 14-1 this season after undergoing right ankle surgery last October.

"I didn't know how well I would play and I had some doubts if I was still good enough," Hingis said. "But this year with a win in Sydney and playing so well at the Australian Open and now winning in Tokyo my expectations are definitely very high. I couldn't set any goals for the rest of the year before these tournaments, but now I can, and they will be high goals."

Seles, who reached the final in four of her last five tournaments dating back to last season, failed to win her 51st title.

"It was a very close match, either Martina or I could have won," Seles said. "Unfortunately, I didn't and I made too many mistakes at critical points. I have to work on not having so many unforced errors because she's not going to give you any free points.

"All of our matches have been really close and it's usually a couple of points that decides the winner. The last two matches (Melbourne, Tokyo) she's played those points better than me and the two before that (2001 San Diego and Los Angeles) I guess I played them better. I've got to give a lot of credit to Martina, she was really steady on those points and I couldn't come up with it today."