Lindsay Davenport increased the grandeur of her comeback by beating Italian Sara Errani 6-1 6-3 in the Bali semi-finals and setting up a clash with second seed Daniela Hantuchova.

"It's such a great accomplishment to be in the final just three months after having my son and having major abdominal surgery," said the 31-year-old Davenport.

Slovakia's Daniela Hantuchova, ranked 12th in the world, advanced to the finals with a 7-5 6-1 win over Romanian qualifier Sorana Cirstea. (photo via Tennis Fairy)

Anna Chakvetadze and Svetlana Kuznetsova scored singles victories for favorite Russia and gave their team a 2-0 lead over holders Italy in the 2007 Fed Cup by BNP Paribas final.

Chakvetadze earned a hard-fought 6-4 4-6 6-4 victory over Francesca Schiavone, while Kuznetsova completely dominated Mara Santangelo 6-1, 6-2.

Russia needs just one more point to secure a Fed Cup title. However, there are three matches left, which are to take place during this weekend:

Svetlana Kuznetsova (RUS) vs. Francesca Schiavone (ITA)
Anna Chakvetadze (RUS) vs. Mara Santangelo (ITA)
Nadia Petrova/Elena Vesnina (RUS) vs. Mara Santangelo/Roberta Vinci (ITA)

(source: On the Baseline)

Lindsay Davenport’s comeback turned out to be more successful than she had expected. The 31-year-old American stunned top-seeded Jelena Jankovic 6-4 2-6 6-2 to reach the semifinals of the Commonwealth Bank Tennis Classic in Bali, Indonesia.

Neither Davenport nor Jankovic played well, but the experienced former world number one took advantage of the Serb’s constant arguments with Sri Lankan umpire Asitha Attygala. Read more »

Jelena Jankovic will meet Lindsay Davenport in a quarter-final at the Bali Classic in Indonesia after both players claimed not-so-easy straight sets victories on Thursday.

Top-seeded Jankovic dropped the first four games in a match against Australian Casey Dellacqua, but then started playing at the expected high level and finally won 6-4 6-4. Why didn't the Serbian world number three play better? The beauty of Bali distracted her from practicing tennis: "I didn't practice much after the US Open. I had five days off and didn't do anything and when you're here it's very tough to focus you know. I've been enjoying the place so much." I can understand her. Read more »

It was a funny moment when Anna Chakvetadze’s long plait got caught in her racket in the Bank of the West Classic final against Sania Mirza of India. The Russian lost the point because of the incident, but that didn’t stop her to win the tournament. If you haven’t seen how this happened, take a look at this video.

(via Tennis Planet)

Interestingly, Maria Sharapova practiced with Russia's Fed Cup team at the Luzhniki Arena in Moscow on Wednesday, even though she won’t play in the September 15-16 final when her country takes on defending champion Italy.

Sharapova's appearance Wednesday was seen as an attempt to improve frosty relations with the team. The 20-year-old still hasn’t played for Russia in the Fed Cup. Citing injuries, she has withdrawn from the Fed Cup on two occasions in 2007, and was heavily criticized for that. (photo via Fed Cup)

The tennis venue for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games is under construction, and it has been announced that a DecoTurf surface will be used. DecoTurf is the same hardcourt surface used at the US Open.

The Olympic tennis tournament takes place from August 10-17 next year. The US Open, the year's final Grand Slam event, starts on August 25. (via Sporting Life)

Here’s a list of Fed Cup champions since the competition began in 1963. Country with most Fed Cup titles is the United States with seventeen, out of which seven were consecutive. Australia takes the second place with seven titles, while Spain and Czechoslovakia follow with five titles.

2007 Russia beat Italy 4-0
2006 Italy beat Belgium 3-2
2005 Russia beat France 3-2
2004 Russia beat France 3-2
2003 France beat U.S. 4-1
2002 Slovakia beat Spain 3-1
2001 Belgium beat Russia 2-1
2000 U.S. beat Spain 5-0 Read more »

Russia are strongly favored to capture a third Fed Cup title in four years when they take on last year's surprise winners Italy in the Moscow final this weekend. Russian team have US Open 2007 finalist and semifinalist – world number two Svetlana Kuznetsova and world number five Anna Chakvetadze will both play for their country. Italian team, on the other hand, has no player ranked in the world's top 20.

However, Russia captain Shamil Tarpishchev said that his players shouldn’t relax: "It looks easy, but it's not. We have to be careful and play smart, otherwise Italy could take advantage of our mistakes."

Just to mention that the Russians enjoy a 3-0 lead over Italy in head-to-head meetings, including a comfortable 4-1 victory in their last clash two years ago.

Russian team: Svetlana Kuznetsova, Anna Chakvetadze, Nadia Petrova, Elena Vesnina
Captain: Shamil Tarpishchev

Italian team: Francesca Schiavone, Mara Santangelo, Roberta Vinci, Flavia Pennetta
Captain: Corrado Barazzutti

(source: Reuters)

World number one Justine Henin won’t play at the next week’s China Open in Beijing because of breathing problems she has been suffering for a few months, which were diagnosed as chronic asthma.

These health problems haven’t prevented the 25-year-old Belgian from winning the US Open 2007, but her doctor has advised her to take a short break now. If everything goes as planned, Henin will play at three more tournaments this season: in Filderstadt, Zurich and Madrid. (source: Justine Henin's website)