Davenport rediscovers form to power into final

After struggling all week, second seed Lindsay Davenport rediscovered her form in emphatic fashion on Saturday with a 6-1 6-2 semifinal drubbing of fifth-seed Nathalie Tauziat at the $565,000 Los Angeles women's Classic.

"She didn't play great and I played a lot better than I had this week," said Davenport after raising her career record to 13-3 against the French star. "It's nice to have an easier match after a difficult week."

Davenport, 25, will be seeking her fourth title of the year and third at this hardcourt event on Sunday when she faces the winner between top seed Martina Hingis and sixth seed Monica Seles in the other semifinal being played later.

After Tauziat held serve to open the match, Davenport found the range on her serve and blazing ground game to take control, winning the final six games to claim the opener in 20 minutes.

"She made some volley errors in the beginning that normally she's pretty solid on," the winner said. "I thought I was hitting the ball better than the last few days. We didn't have long rallies, but I timed the ball better and had a little bit more feel of the depth of the court."

Davenport continued to dominate in the second set, racing to a 4-1 lead and watched Tauziat commit her third and final double fault on match point to book her final berth.

Tauziat had breezed through to the last four with wins over Tamarine Tanasugarn, Jelena Dokic and Kim Clijsters without dropping a set.

Davenport, meanwhile, had struggled with mental fatigue and tendinitis to get past Russians Nadia Petrova and Elena Dementieva and Daja Bedanova of the Czech Republic before coming to life against the 33-year old French star, who plans to retire at the end of the year.

"It wasn't a bad day," Tauziat said. "Lindsay overpowered me and played much better. She served well today, she was quick to the ball, and I was always late. It was impossible to play my game."

Of her prospective final opponents, Davenport has won eight of 10 career decisions against Seles, and holds a 13-10 career log against the world number one Hingis.

"With either player it's going to be a different match," said Davenport, the world's third ranked player.

"Monica is a lot more aggressive and has a more penetrating serve, whereas Martina runs down a lot more balls and gives you less errors."