Bell Challenge: Davenport bookends short season with another win

QUEBEC CITY (AFP) – Lindsay Davenport won the 53rd WTA title of her career here Sunday, defeating third-seeded Julia Vakulenko 6-4, 6-1 in the final of the 175,000-dollar Bell Challenge.It was Davenport’s second victory in just three tournaments in 2007.

After taking nearly a year off because of pregnancy, the three-time Grand Slam champion and former world No. 1 returned to win the title in Bali in September.

She ousted three seeded players on the way to that unexpected title, the followed up with a semi-final appearance in Beijing the following week.

A month later, the 31-year-old American was still showing no signs of rust in Quebec City.

In five matches at the indoor tournament she posted four straight-set wins. Only second seeded Russian Vera Zvonareva was able to mount a real challenge before falling 6-2, 6-7 (3/7), 6-3 to Davenport in the semi-finals.

Although she had never faced Ukraine’s Vakulenko before, Davenport dispatched her with relative ease.

Vakulenko, 24, was playing in her first career final.

Davenport broke Vakulenko to love to take the first set, and used her powerful serve to dominate the second.

“My game plan was to serve well and just hold my serve,” Davenport said. “Once I was able to break her at the end of the first set, that helped my momentum. I was focused on my serving and knew the rest of it would take care of itself.”

With the victory, Davenport is tied with Monica Seles for eighth on the WTA’s all-time list.

Davenport had said she didn’t plan to return to competition after starting a family. But she admitted she began to feel the urge to play just weeks after giving birth to her son, Jagger, in June.

She said her brief experience of playing since she became a mother had put a different spin on the experience, and she was clearly looking toward 2008.

“Just the journey back has been greater than I could have anticipated,” Davenport said. “It has been a much different experience coming back this time around – I just feel a lot less pressure, and I’m just trying to enjoy it as I go. I haven’t set any goals. It’s kind of undefined.

“Obviously things will change in Melbourne when I’m playing Justine, Venus or Serena. But but I consider it a victory just going out and playing a big match, after such a great year off the court.”