Three-time Grand Slam champion and former world No.1 Lindsay Davenport expressed her appreciation of young Serbian tennis star Ana Ivanovic complimenting both Ivanovic's physical appearance and her on and off court behavior.

Speaking during this week’s Pacific Life Open in Indian Wells, Davenport said: "I think that Ivanovic is one of the prettiest girls we have playing, and she’s sweet and competitive and graceful at the same time.”

When asked to comment on the rise of two Serbian players, Ana Ivanovic and Jelena Jankovic, who are now both in the Top 5 and face each other tonight in Indian Wells semifinals, Davenport said: "I think they’re great, and they are two completely opposite girls. Ivanovic is a really super nice girl. I know her a little bit more, and I’m a big fan of hers." (source: Ana Ivanovic's website)

Sixth season of the popular TV show called Dancing with the Stars airs on ABC in just 28 hours and tennis fans are excited that former world No.1 and holder of nine Grand Slam singles titles Monica Seles is taking part in the program.

Monica Seles’ colleagues are excited just as her fans. If Lindsay Davenport has her way, she won't be playing Monday night at the Pacific Life Open. That's because Davenport wants to be home watching her friend Monica dance on ABC.

"I heard she's just doing so well, so I wish her all the luck," Davenport said.

"When people see her I think they'll be reminded of why they love her so much," Davenport added. "We'll be voting for her."

If you’re Seles’ fan, you don't want to miss the show. I will unfortunately have to, since I don’t have ABC. I suppose I’ll find it later on the internet.

Former world number one Lindsay Davenport won her 55th career singles title and fourth since returning to play last September after the birth of her son. In the final of the Cellular South Cup, the 31-year-old Californian defeated teenager Olga Govortsova of Belarus 6-2, 6-1.

Since the comeback, Davenport has won Bali, Quebec City and Auckland, and on Saturday the Tier III tournament in Memphis.

Govortsova, who was playing her first career singles final, didn't stand a chance against the veteran who came in ranked only three slots ahead of her at No.49.

Winning the title, Davenport became tied with Virginia Wade at No.7 on the all-time list of Tour singles title winners. "I've never been one to look at records or anything, but it all seems surreal. I love being up there with the greatest player(s) that ever played. I can't believe I passed Monica (Seles). Monica was my idol for years and years," said Davenport.

On her way to the trophy, fourth-seeded Davenport defeated Sabine Lisicki (revenging her recent Fed Cup loss), Evgeniya Rodina, sixth seed Caroline Wozniacki, Marina Erakovic, and finally fifth seed Govortsova. (source: ESPN, photo: RMK Championships)

Teenager Sabine Lisicki stunned former world number one Lindsay Davenport 6-1 7-5 to give Germany a surprise 1-0 lead over the United States.

The 130th-ranked teenager produced one of the biggest upsets in the history of Fed Cup defeating the former Wimbledon, US Open and Australian Open champion in straight sets. Previously, Davenport had won 25 of 27 singles matches in the team competition.

"Lindsay is such a great champion and I just beat her," said excited Lisicki after the biggest victory of her career.

"We're 1-0 up and I think nobody thought that it would be that way," added the 18-year-old German, who reached the third round of last month's Australian Open after winning three qualifying matches.

Isn't this Davenport's first big loss since her comeback? (source: Guardian Unlimited, photo via Union Tribune)

Lindsay Davenport was not a big challenge to fifth-seeded Maria Sharapova who defeated her 6-1 6-3 in little over an hour.

Sharapova took the first set in just 26 minutes. The second set was much more competitive, but still Davenport couldn't find an answer to Sharapova's confident play and devastating form.

Everybody was disappointed that these two former world number ones had to meet as early as in the second round of the 2008 Australian Open. However, we must admit that the comeback mom Lindsay Davenport didn’t live up to the expectations, as we were expecting a much tougher battle and a continuation of her more than impressive comeback.

Davenport herself is not satisfied with her performance, but is still optimistic (and she should be!). "I know I can play better than I did here this week," said the former Australian Open champion. "I've got to figure out a way to play better again at the bigger tournaments."

Maria Sharapova will face fellow Russian Elena Vesnina in round three. (photo via Getty Images)

Lindsay Davenport overcame Aravane Rezai in just 51 minutes to win ASB Classic in Auckland, New Zealand, her third title in four tournaments played since her comeback. The final score was 6-2 6-2.

The American returned to action in September after a year out to have her first child, son Jagger, and has since seen nothing but success winning 18 of her 19 matches, and adding titles from the Commonwealth Bank Tennis Classic, Bell Challenge, and now ASB Classic to her already impressive resume.

The former world number one, who was unseeded, did not face a single break point in the final against France’s world No.90 Rezai, who was looking for her first WTA Tour title.

Davenport's astonishing performance shows that she could be a major threat at the first Grand Slam of the season, the Australian Open, which starts January 14.

BTW: Davenport improved her percentage of wins in singles to 79.4 percent — 792 wins in 918 matches — the best winning percentage in WTA history. (sources: BBC, ESPN, photo via: WTA World)

Lindsay Davenport reached her third final in four tournaments since her comeback with a 6-4 6-3 victory over sixth seed Tamira Paszek at the ASB Classic in Auckland, New Zealand.

Note that this was Davenport’s 17th win out of 18 matches since her return. Impressive! And now she’s only one match away from winning her 54th career title.

In the final, Davenport will meet unseeded Aravane Rezai of France, who ended the surprise run of home wildcard Marina Erakovic 6-3 7-5. (source: Reuters, photo: Yellowballin’)

When I found this photo of little Lindsay Davenport playing tennis I was very pleased that my collection, that could be called "Photos of Female Tennis Players When They Were Kids", is getting richer (slowly but surely). I've already published young pictures of Ana Ivanovic, Kim Clijsters, and Monica Seles.

(image of Lindsay found at WTA World)