Davenport Dominates Sugiyama in Quarterfinal Victory

Fourth-seeded Lindsay Davenport of the United States continued her excellent play at the Acura Classic as she dominated eighth-seeded Ai Sugiyama of Japan, 6-1, 6-3, in a quarterfinal match on Stadium Court.

The American advances to Saturday’s semifinals where she will face Russia’s Elena Dementieva, a 6-2, 6-1, winner over Amy Frazier earlier in the day.

Davenport, who is on a 12-match winning streak this summer, won the first 11 points of the match in building at 5-0 lead and would go on to win the first set, 6-1, in 23 minutes.

Throughout the match, Davenport dictated play from the baseline and kept Sugiyama moving from sideline to sideline.

Davenport took a 4-1 lead in the second set with a service break in the fourth game.

Sugiyama then served her best game of the match, winning at love to make the score 4-2.

She then broke Davenport’s serve for the second time in the match to get back on serve as Davenport hit a service return into the net on the second break point of the game. The vocal crowd at the La Costa Resort and Spa gave Sugiyama a rousing cheer.

Davenport came back and quickly broke serve to go up 5-3 as she hit a forehand drop shot volley for a winner on break point.

In the next game, Sugiyama made a strong effort to stay in the match as she fought off two match points.

On the second deuce of the game, Sugiyama sliced a backhand into the net to give Davenport match point.

The match, which took 56 minutes, came to an end when Sugiyama’s forehand hit the tape.

• Davenport has not lost since dropping a three-set match to Maria Sharapova in the Wimbledon semifinals. She has won WTA Tour events in Stanford and Los Angeles since then.
• Davenport now leads Sugiyama 10-1 in career head-to-head meetings.
• Davenport’s 2004 match record improves to 45-6.
• Davenport is playing in her ninth Acura Classic. She won the event here in 1998, defeating Mary Pierce of France in the finals.
• Davenport is ranked fourth in the world.
• Davenport has three career Grand Slam titles. (1998 US Open, 1999 Wimbledon, 2000 Australian Open).
• Davenport has won 42 career WTA Tour singles titles. She has won four titles this year.
• Sugiyama’s 2004 match record is now 22-17.
• Sugiyama was making her 10th Acura Classic appearance. This was the fourth time she has reached the quarterfinals here.
• Sugiyama is ranked 11 in the world.
• Sugiyama teamed with Kim Clijsters to win the 2003 Acura Classic doubles title. They also teamed to win titles at Roland Garros and Wimbledon last year.
  

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