HONG Kong's leading tennis player Willy Chan Lee will make a long-awaited return to competition when she takes part in a junior tournament in Thailand next week.
The 16-year-old Chan suffered an ankle injury in Australia earlier this year, forcing her to miss last month's inaugural Nokia event in Beijing.
But her coach Mark Bailey said the time was ripe for her to get back on the circuit and try to improve her world ranking, which stands at about 590.
Bailey said: ''The injury turned out to be a lot more serious than we originally thought, but we now hope to enter her in a few more hundreds (US$100,000) events in April.'' Chan leaves for Thailand tomorrow and the following week travels to Singapore for the Asian Junior Championship.
She won the Asian Championship singles title in Hong Kong in December and is hot favourite to add the junior title as well.
Meanwhile, the Hong Kong Davis Cup squad will spend four days in the Philippines prior to their Asia-Oceania Zone Group One first round match against Indonesia at Victoria Park.