TORAY PAN PACIFIC OPEN TOKYO, JAPAN SEP 19 - SEP 25 2016

TOURNAMENT INFO

TIER: Premier
PRIZE MONEY: $885,500

SURFACE: Hard
DIRECTOR: Kentaro Miyamoto

Part of the Asian swing of the WTA calendar, the Toray Pan Pacific Open debuted in 1984 on indoor carpet at the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium. The event was upgraded to Premier status in 1993 and the surface changed to outdoor hardcourts in 2008, when the tournament moved to its present-day venue of the Ariake Tennis Forest Park - which features the 10,000-seat Ariake Coliseum.

Martina Hingis has the most titles in event history with five, her first coming as a 16-year-old in 1997. Other notable winners include four-time champs Lindsay Davenport, three-time champs Steffi Graf and Gabriela Sabatini, and Martina Navratilova, Maria Sharapova, Dinara Safina, Caroline Wozniacki and Ana Ivanovic. The lone Japanese winner was Kimiko Date-Krumm in 1995. Helena Sukova has the most doubles titles with five.

One of three "command centers" of the global economy along with London and New York City, Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the home of the Japanese government and the largest metropolitan area of the world.