| TOKYO (Reuters) - Former world number one Martina Hingis is set to play at the $1.3 million Pan Pacific Open early next year, tournament organizers said Thursday.
The 22-year-old Swiss, who said in October that she would take an indefinite break from tennis after a poor run of results following ankle surgery, is scheduled to make her comeback at the Australian Open in January.
Hingis, listed among the official entries for the January 13-26 Grand Slam event in Melbourne, is the defending champion at the Pan Pacific Open, which gets under way on January 28 at Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium.
Also scheduled to take part in Tokyo are Australian Open champion Jennifer Capriati -- the current world number three -- and fellow American Lindsay Davenport, twice a winner at the Pan Pacific Open.
Hingis, who won the last of her five Grand Slam singles titles at the 1999 Australian Open, underwent ankle surgery in May and has since slipped to 10th in the world rankings.
World number nine Jelena Dokic of Yugoslavia and Russian Anna Kournikova are also set to play in Tokyo. | 