Five-time Wimbledon champion Venus Williams will be the drawcard at January's ASB tennis tournament in Auckland.
The former world No 1 has slumped to 104 in the world rankings because of injury and health problems.
An auto-immune disease that can cause fatigue and joint pain forced her to withdraw from the US Open in August.
The director of the ASB Classic, Richard Palmer, hopes Williams's health will hold up.
"She'd been having problems," Mr Williams says, "and at long last she had a diagnosis and she could actually deal with it."
He says she'll be playing a couple of exhibition matches shortly and the ASB Classic will be her only tournament before the Australian Open starting in mid-January.