Davenport Dashes Dementieva’s Hopes to Reach Acura Classic Final

Lindsay Davenport of the United States held off a surging Elena Dementieva for a 6-2, 6-4 semifinal victory, to advance to the finals of the 2004 Acura Classic.

The fourth-seeded American will play in her second career Acura Classic final. She won the tournament here in 1998, defeating Mary Pierce of France in the finals.

Davenport has won 13 straight matches since losing to Maria Sharapova in the Wimbledon semifinals. She won WTA Tour tournaments in Stanford and Los Angeles before coming to play at the La Costa Resort and Spa this week.

After breaking Dementieva to open the match, Davenport used her dominating serve to take a 5-2 lead. She lost only four points on serve and did not face a single break point in the first set.

As Davenport served for the first set at 30-30, Dementieva, the fifth-seeded Russian, hit two backhand service return errors as Davenport won the first set, 6-2, in 29 minutes.

The second set began with three straight service breaks. Davenport took a 2-1 lead by winning an 18-point game in which Dementieva hit three of her nine double faults.

Later Davenport scored another service break to take a 5-2 lead and looked poised to serve out the match, but the Russian had other ideas as she broke back and saved a match point to hold serve and make the score to 5-4.

With the large Stadium Court crowd sensing a come back, Davenport got to her second match point of the set at 40-30, only to see Dementieva hit a drop shot half-volley for a winner.

Two points later, Davenport fought off a break point, which would have leveled the set at 5-5.

After Davenport won the next point to reach her third match point, Dementieva netted a crosscourt backhand to end the match.

• Davenport will face the winner of the Zvonareva / Myskina semifinal match in Sunday’s final.
• Davenport now leads Dementieva 9-4 in career head-to-head meetings.
• Davenport’s 2004 match record improves to 46-6.
• Davenport is playing in her ninth Acura Classic.
• 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.
• Dementieva is ranked sixth in the world.
• Dementieva had defeated Davenport in their most recent meeting. She won, 6-1, 6-3, in the fourth round of this year’s French Open.
• Dementieva’s 2004 match record is now 22-13.
• Dementieva was playing in her fifth Acura Classic.
• Dementieva reached the finals of this year’s French Open where she lost to compatriot Anastasia Myskina.

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