KEY POINTS:
Heineken Open regular Mario Ancic will be looking to put a run of illness and injury behind him when he returns to Auckland in January.
The latest player to confirm his presence in the draw, the giant Croat may be granted a wildcard by tournament director Graham Pearce as his world ranking of 86 will be close to the cut mark for direct entry.
Ancic packs a hefty CV to go with his booming serve - his career-high ranking is seven and he was last man to beat Roger Federer at Wimbledon - but the last two seasons have been very much a tale of woe.
The 2006 Heineken Open finalist missed nearly six months of this year due to illness, but still managed to reach two quarter-finals including the Tennis Masters event at Madrid.
There were other good individual victories including a win over Tommy Haas at the Masters Series tournament in Cincinnati and a third-round victory over Dominik Hrbaty at the Australian Open.
But things started to go wrong after that as a bout of mononucleosis (glandular fever) sidelined him until August.
His season was then further disrupted by a shoulder injury.
Auckland will be the start of his campaign to recapture his former standing in the game.
"Mario is a great talent to have coming back," Pearce said.
"He has a huge amount of talent and has proved his popularity with crowds at the tournament."
Ancic first played in Auckland in 2004 when he beat New Zealander Simon Rea but lost in the second round to Rafael Nadal.
Two years later there were victories over Mark Nielsen, Andy Murray, Fernando Gonzalez and Stanislas Wawrinka before a defeat in the final by Jarkko Nieminen.
This year he won his first round match against Czech Lukas Rosol but lost to Mardy Fish in the second.
"Mario has been top-10 and is also a wonderful ambassador for his sport," Pearce said.
"He will be keen to use the tournament as a staging point for a full year on the ATP circuit without any health problems."
