Davenport on Swiss high with third win

Third seed Lindsay Davenport swept past Yugoslav Jelena Dokic 6-3 6-1 on Sunday to win the Swisscom Challenge for a third time and take her sixth tournament title of the season.

The 25-year-old American has been almost unbeatable in Zurich throughout her career. She has reached the final four times in four visits, winning it on three occasions (1997, 1998 and 2001) while compiling a sparkling record of 15-1.

Switzerland has always proved a happy hunting ground for Davenport, who can also count two titles from nearby Lucerne on her resume. Her only career loss in the nation came last year when she was defeated in the Swisscom final by Martina Hingis.

"Who knows?" shrugged Davenport, when asked for an explanation of her Swiss record. "I feel a lot of confidence and I feel great out there.

"I've won here three times and was serving for the match last year, maybe I should have four titles from here."

This year's final featured two of the hottest players on the women's Tour.

Both arrived in Switzeraland coming off tournament wins, Davenport in Filderstadt and Dokic in Moscow.

Davenport had been in the finals in three of her four previous events, winning two. Dokic arrived having also reached the final in three of her last four events and won two.

"I have no slams this year but this is my second tier-one title and the last few weeks have been really unbelievable," said Davenport.

The closeness of their records, however, was evident for only a brief while during the opening set with the first three games all needing lengthy deuces to decide.

Davenport, who advanced with a semifinal win over new world number one Jennifer Capriati, stamped her authority on the match and broke her 18-year-old opponent to go in front 4-3.

The three-time Grand Slam winner then showed her class as she swept the next seven games to take the set and a commanding 5-0 lead in the second before wrapping up the match in just 63 minutes.

"In the beginning she played really well and I was just trying to stay in there," said Davenport, who has held the number one world ranking four times during her career.

"When she broke me at 3-3 in the first set it looked like it could be trouble but then I played great after that.

"Definitely in the second set she gave me a lot more errors and wasn't playing as well as when she started off."

"I wasn't 100 percent today but even if I was I don't think it would have mattered," said the fourth-seeded Dokic. "I made too many unforced errors and you can't do that against Lindsay.

"After the first set I wasn't in the match and she just never went off the boil."