Quebec City, QC (Sports Network) - American Lindsay Davenport continued her push to a second title this year, ousting second-seed Vera Zvonareva in three sets to reach the final of the $175,000 Bell Challenge.
Appearing in her third consecutive quarterfinal since returning to the WTA Tour in August after nearly a year out of action, Davenport, who won the Bali Open this year, dropped her first set of the tournament but still managed to beat the Russian Zvonareva, 6-2, 6-7 (3-7), 6-3.
Davenport, who gave birth to her first child, Jagger Jonathan Leach, in June and returned to play in September, will square off against third-seeded Ukrainian Julia Vakulenko in the final.
Vakulenko overcame an injured right ankle to defeat American qualifier Julie Ditty, 6-1, 4-6, 7-5. The 28-year-old Ditty made the first semifinal appearance of her WTA Tour career.
Quebec City, QC (Sports Network) - American Lindsay Davenport continued her push to a second title this year with a 6-4, 6-0 victory over Frenchwoman Stephanie Foretz in the quarterfinals at the $175,000 Bell Challenge.
Appearing in her third consecutive quarterfinal since returning to the Tour in August after nearly a year out of action, Davenport continued to sweep away opponents. The new mother, having given birth to first child Jagger Jonathan Leach in June, has yet to lose a set in any of her three matches this week.
Davenport, a three-time Gland Slam champion, returned to play in September, winning the Bali Open and reaching the semifinals in the China Open. Her next opponent will be second-seeded Russian Vera Zvonareva, a 6-2, 6-1 winner over fellow countrywoman and eighth seed Olga Poutchkova, the runner-up last year.
Third-seeded Ukrainian Julia Vakulenko gained her third career semifinal berth with a 6-3, 6-2 triumph over fifth seed Olga Govortsova of Belarus.
Next up for Vakulenko will be qualifier Julie Ditty, a 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 victor over fellow American Vania King. The 28-year-old Ditty was already making the first quarterfinal appearance of her WTA Tour career.
Beijing, China (Sports Network) - World No. 3 Jelena Jankovic and former No. 1 Lindsay Davenport posted quarterfinal wins, while third-seeded Frenchwoman Amelie Mauresmo came up a loser Friday at the $600,000 China Open.
The second-seeded Jankovic handled Japan's Akiko Morigami 6-3, 7-5, while the unseeded Davenport won her eighth straight match by ousting fourth-seeded Russian Elena Dementieva 7-6 (7-1), 6-1 at Beijing Tennis Center.
Jankovic and the three-time major titlist Davenport will now meet for a second straight week, as the 31-year-old American doused the Serbian star in last week's quarterfinals on her way to a title in Bali. Last week marked Davenport's first WTA Tour singles action since last September. She gave birth to her first child, a son named Jagger, in June of this year.
Davenport is a perfect 4-0 lifetime against Jankovic.
The former top-ranked and two-time major champion Mauresmo succumbed to Chinese crowd favorite Shuai Peng 4-6, 6-4, 6-2. Mauresmo was last year's Beijing runner-up to Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova, who pulled out of this year's event on Wednesday due to an injury.
One other quarterfinal match saw sixth-seeded Hungarian Agnes Szavay zip past Argentine lucky-loser Maria Emilia Salerni 6-2, 6-4. Salerni replaced an injured Kuznetsova in the draw here.
Szavay and Peng will square off in Saturday's other semifinal.
The 2007 Beijing titlist will collect $88,265.
Bali, Indonesia (Sports Network) - Playing her first singles tennis since last year, former world No. 1 American Lindsay Davenport was an easy opening- round winner Tuesday at the $225,000 Commonwealth Bank Tennis Classic.
An unseeded Davenport rolled past fifth-seeded Greek Eleni Daniilidou 6-2, 6-2 at the beautiful Grand Hyatt Bali. Davenport is now 2-0 lifetime against Daniilidou, with the other victory coming on a hardcourt in Los Angeles five years ago.
The 31-year-old Davenport is a three-time major titlist and captured this Bali event in 2005.
Davenport gave birth to her first child, a son named Jagger, back in June, and played her first WTA Tour tennis of any kind by making a doubles appearance in New Haven three weeks ago. Her last singles match came in China last September.
Up next for the big American will be her qualifier countrywoman Julie Ditty, who whipped Czech Hana Sromova 6-2, 6-1 on Day 2 here.
A trio of seeds managed to advance on Tuesday, as No. 3 Swiss Patty Schnyder shut down Chinese Shuai Zhang 6-4, 6-2, No. 4 Spaniard Anabel Medina Garrigues pasted Indonesian wild card Sandy Gumulya 6-1, 6-1 and No. 6 German Martina Muller mauled Belarusian Tatiana Poutchek 6-3, 6-3.
Another seed bowed out when Chinese qualifier Meng Yuan drilled No. 8 Russian Yaroslava Shvedova 6-0, 6-1.
Additional wins came for Aussie Casey Dellacqua, Italian Sara Errani, Romanian qualifier Sorana Cirstea and Japanese qualifier Ayumi Morita.
This week's winner will collect $32,340. The top seeds are Serbian Jelena Jankovic and Slovakian Daniela Hantuchova. Jankovic will open her stay against Dellacqua, while Hantuchova will face Dutchwoman Elise Tamaela.
Quebec City, QC (Sports Network) - American Lindsay Davenport continued her push to a second title this year, ousting second-seed Vera Zvonareva in three sets to reach the final of the $175,000 Bell Challenge.
