Last summer's beaten finalist Elena Vesnina of Russia has confirmed she is returning for next January's ASB women's tennis Classic in Auckland.
Vesnina started 2009 with a ranking of 79, but the 23-year-old has improved that to 22 in the world.
This year Vesnina had her best performance at Wimbledon reaching the fourth round and also secured her second career final in New Haven, while she made the French Open doubles final.
Already announced are the world No1 doubles and multi-Grand Slam winning pair of Cara Black (Zimbabwe) and Liezel Huber(United States). More player announcements are expected in the next few weeks.
