Hingis reigns in Japan

Hingis has already won two tournaments this year

Martina Hingis claimed another hard-fought victory over Monica Seles on Sunday to win the Pan Pacific Open for the fourth time in six years.

In a repeat of her Australian Open semi-final against Seles, Hingis successfully tamed the American's big groundstrokes to triumph 7-6 4-6 6-3.

The Swiss top seed was playing her third event of the season after a three-month lay-off due to ankle surgery.

And she continued her comeback by adding the Tokyo event to her victory in the Sydney International last month.

I have to give credit to Martina. She was very steady on the key points

Monica Seles

"I have worked pretty hard after the surgery so this is kind of like the chocolate sauce on top of the vanilla ice cream to finish like this," said Hingis.

"You always have doubts.

"Sometimes you ask yourself if you are still good enough but now I can set my expectations and goals very high this year."

Both players failed to convert chances to break in the first set and Seles took control of the tie-break by surging into a 5-1 lead.

Hingis clawed back to 4-5, only for Seles to secure another mini-break to have double set point.

Precision

But she then proceeded to miss four times with her powerful double-fisted strokes to hand Hingis the set.

Seles refused to give up and her attacking approach paid off when she broke Hingis for the first time in the seventh game of the second set.

The players both surrendered their serves again before Seles served out to level the match.

Hingis made the vital break in the second game of the decider, after Seles had handed her three break points with a double fault, and she never looked back.

Seles had recovered from a break down in the third set against Anna Kournikova in the semi-final but had no answer to the precision and depth of her opponent's groundstrokes.

Seles has a poor record against Hingis

Hingis never faced a break point in the deciding set and closed out proceedings with a service winner on her first match point after one hour 38 minutes.

Seles has now lost 14 of her 18 matches against Hingis in major tournaments.

"I got a little bit tight and made some unfortunate mistakes at critical times," Seles said.

"You can't afford unforced errors and it's something I have to work on.

"I have to give credit to Martina.

"She was very steady on the key points and I couldn't come up with the shots today."

The win continued Hingis's fine form on the fast indoor surface in Tokyo.

It was her sixth straight appearance in the Pan Pacific final, which she also won in 1997, 1999 and 2000.

And her defeat by Jennifer Capriati in the Australian Open final last week is the only blemish on her record so far this year.