Davenport prepares for singles return with doubles win

BALI, Sep 10 (Reuters) Lindsay Davenport teamed up with Slovakia's Daniela Hantuchova today to claim the first win of her comeback after the birth of her son Jagger, beating Sophie Lefevre of France and Ipek Senoglu of Turkey 6-3 6-1 at the Bali Classic.

The 31-year old American, who gave birth in June, played doubles at New Haven last month with Lisa Raymond but lost in the opening round.

She will play her first singles match in nearly a year, against fifth seeded Eleni Daniilidou of Greece.

''It's not an easy first match,'' said Davenport, the 2005 Bali singles champion. ''But it's not really about who I play and winning matches. It's hard to put expectations on myself after everything that's happened in the last year.

''I look forward to playing anybody and being out there in a match situation and playing two full sets or three full sets and trying to build points and trying to see where my fitness is.

It's going to be exciting and a good test.'' In singles play today, Taiwan's Hsieh Su-wei failed to take advantage of several opportunities in the opening three games against Youlia Fedossova of France and then slumped to a crushing 6-0 6-0 defeat in just 50 minutes.

Hsieh, a 15-year old semi-finalist in Bali in 2001, held a game point in the first game, three in the next and two more in the third, but her opponent held off the challenge and the deflated Hsieh folded.

At one stage in the opening set she struck five double-faults in six points, and then failed to earn a game point in the second set.

Edina Gallovits was even swifter in banishing Slovakia's Jarmila Gajdosova, the Romanian taking only 48 minutes to win 6-1 6-0. After holding for 1-1, Gajdosova earned just five points in her next five service games to fall behind by a set and 3-0 to leave her opponent firmly in control.

Dutch left-hander Elise Tamaela beat American Jill Craybas 4-6 7-6 6-2 to earn a meeting with second seed Daniela Hantuchova.

The Slovak has a first round bye, along with world number three Jelena Jankovic of Serbia, who will play either Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark or Australia's Casey Dellacqua.

REUTERS SSC RAI2053