Thursday, January 03, 2008 Davenport beats 5th seed in 3 sets
AUCKLAND—Lindsay Davenport improved to 15-1 in singles since her return to tournament play when she beat Annabel Medina Garrigues, 6-1, 4-6, 6-0, Wednesday in the second round of the ASB Classic.
Davenport has won two singles tournaments and reached the semifinals of another since returning after the birth of her first child. She outclassed No. 5 seed Medina Garrigues, who is ranked 40 places above her.
Davenport beat fellow American Laura Granville, 6-2, 6-3, in her first-round match Monday and looked in similarly confident form Wednesday, although she had to overcome a brief loss of concentration during the second set.
“I played really well in the first and third sets but had a bit of a lapse in the second as I did on Monday,” Davenport said.
“That’s something I’ll figure out with more games. Overall, I played two very good sets, and in tennis all you have to do is win two of three.”
Davenport, who has won three grand slams and last held the No. 1 ranking in January 2006, said she was happy to be making steady progress toward the first Grand Slam of the year.
“I played well today and I’ll get better with each game I play,” she said
Davenport broke Medina Garrigues in the first game of the deciding set, held serve with her sixth ace and broke twice more for a 5-0 lead. She served out the match with her seventh ace and on her first match point.
Top-seeded Russian Vera Zvonareva advanced to her third quarterfinal in Auckland with a 6-2, 6-3 win over Sofia Arvidsson of Sweden.
No. 7 seed and former champion Eleni Daniilidou of Greece was beaten 7-5, 6-4 by Aravane Rezai of France. (AP)
