Davenport dominates to reach Beijing semis

　　LINDSAY Davenport struggled through a rough opening set against Elena Dementieva before taking charge to win the match and book a spot in the semi-finals at the China Open.

　　Dementieva, the No.4 seed, did herself no favours in the 7-6 (7/1), 6-1 loss to Davenport, giving the American too many free points with her notoriously dodgy serve by striking 12 double faults.

　　Davenport, the former world No.1 now firmly on the comeback trail after winning in Bali last weekend, battled through the first set, which lasted for more than one hour, losing her own serve three times.

　　But once the Californian put her game into high gear, it was all over for the Russian, who was broken six times during the 90-minute match.

　　Davenport, currently ranked 154, lost in the quarter-finals here a year ago, and then hung her rackets up, announcing her "retirement" and saying she wanted to concentrate on starting a family.

　　Davenport polished her career record over Dementieva - who won the China Open title four years ago in Shanghai - to 11 wins and five defeats. She lost to the Russian in their last meeting at the US Open in 2005.

　　The victory puts the unseeded Davenport, testing the waters for a possible full-time return to tennis after a year away, into a Saturday semi-final clash with either second seed Jelena Jankovic or Japan's Akiko Morigami.

　　The other two quarter-finals pit 2006 finalist Amelie Mauresmo, the third seed, against China's Peng Shuai, while Hungarian sixth seed Agnes Szavay was taking on lucky loser Maria-Emilia Salerni.

　　The No.113 Argentine received a place in the draw when top seed and titleholder Svetlana Kuznetsova withdrew with an abdominal injury before her opening match.

　　新浪与奥运官方实时数据提供商战略合作