Davenport, Seles breeze into round three

Davenport, making her first ever appearance in Rome, is back on the WTA Tour after a month and a half’s break since the Ericsson Open in Miami.

Davenport has reached the final of all five tournaments she has entered this year — winning two, losing two and failing to play when two days of rain washed out the final at Scottsdale.

“Up until now it’s been just an amazing year for myself,” she said. “Since last November, I’ve been winning a lot of tournaments and not losing very many times. Always being such a highly consistent performer is very satisfying.”

And Davenport, who won her third Grand Slam title at the Australian Open in January, has not finished yet.

“So far, it’s been a tremendous year,” she said. “And I hope to add another Grand Slam title somewhere along the line this year, just to try and maintain what I’ve already accomplished.”

Seles, who won this tournament for Yugoslavia 10 years ago, lost four games in a row to trail 2-5 and was even 30-40 down and facing set point on the Bulgarians serve.

But she pulled her game together in the nick of time to break for 5-5 and then again to take the set when a disputed shot of hers was called in and Maleeva swept a forehand long.

Seles was a different player in the second set, rediscovering her old clay-court power and precision while Maleeva’s confidence simply faded away.

The turning point came in the fourth game. Maleeva thundered an overhead smash into the net from point-blank range, to the gasps of the Foro Italico crowd, and then found the net again to be broken for 3-1.

Seles reached 4-1 with one her booming two-fisted drives into the corner and simply destroyed her opponent in the sixth game before serving out for 6-1.

Seles and Davenport were joined in the last 16 by French 12th seed Amelie Mauresmo, who dispatched Czech Kveta Hrdlickova 6-0, 6-2, and Aussie teenager Jelena Dokic, who comfortably beat Russian Tatiana Panova 6-3, 6-1.