Former world number one Lindsay Davenport powered into the quarter-finals of the China Open on Thursday, notching her seventh straight win since rejoining the tour after giving birth in June. World number three Jelena Jankovic also reached the quarter-finals, administering a 6-0, 6-0 thrashing of Spain's Virginia Ruano Pascual in just 45 minutes.
But all eyes were on the comeback mum Davenport, who defeated Eleni Daniilidou, 7-5, 6-3, in a case of deja vu - the American knocked out the Greek in the first round of the Bali International last week. Daniilidou, who has now lost all three career meetings with Davenport dating back to 2002, did herself no favours, losing her serve five times.
"I got off to a slow start," said Davenport. "But I made fewer errors and forced her to make errors later on." Davenport, 31, arrived in Beijing after winning the title on the Indonesian resort island, testing the waters in Asia as she contemplates a full-time return to tennis in 2008 after a year out of the game. "It's felt easy," Davenport said of her comeback. "I think it's more that it's been fun, I've enjoyed it. I still don't know why it's been going so well."
With her three-month-old baby son Jagger, her mother, and a nanny in tow, Davenport said she was adjusting to life as a player-mother. "I'm still learning how to do it. I have to focus hours a day on my son and it's really important. It's hard to be good at both and I'm still learning," said Davenport, who is currently ranked 154 but rising fast.
"Luckily he's quite a good sleeper." The three-time Grand Slam champion has said she will assess her options after Beijing. Should she decide to come back to the WTA tour full-time, she would likely make her next appearance in Australia in January.
Jankovic, the second seed here who was defeated by Davenport in a bad-tempered Bali quarter-final, wasted no time as she launched her Beijing campaign against the 33-year-old Ruano Pascual. The Serbian will on Friday face Japan's Akiko Morigami, who beat Aiko Nakamura 7-5, 6-3. Elena Dementieva, the Russian fourth seed, began her week in the Chinese capital with a 51-minute 6-2, 6-0 demolition of talented Austrian teenager Tamira Paszek.
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