Philadelphia, Oct 26: Venus Williams is set to make her return to the WTA tour here next week as the top seed in the 585,000-dollar Advanta championships. Williams, 23, is ranked sixth despite not having played since losing the Wimbledon final to her younger sister Serena. Venus Williams has suffered from pulled abdominal muscles.

Williams will be a favourite at next month's WTA tour championship in Los Angeles, especially in the absence of fourth-ranked Lindsay Davenport and third-ranked Serena Williams with injuries. With a first-round bye here, Venus Williams will open with a second-round match against either Australia's Nicole Pratt or an undetermined qualifier.

France's Amelie Mauresmo is seeded second, followed in order by Russia's Anastasia Myskina, American Chanda Rubin, Japan's Ai Sugiyama, Russia's Vera Zvonareva and Nadia Petrova and American Meghann Shaughnessy.

Shaughnessy was the ninth seed but moved into the spot vacated by the late withdrawal of eighth seed Paola Suarez of Argentina. Bureau Report