03 August 2004	Tuesday	16 Jamadi-us-Saani 1425

SAN DIEGO, Aug 2: American Lindsay Davenport completed her second career "California Triple" by crushing French Open champion Anastasia Myskina 6-1, 6-1 in the final of the Acura Classic on Sunday.

The 28-year-old Davenport played virtually errorless tennis throughout the 47-minute contest to win her third consecutive hard court title over three weeks on her native California soil.

It is the second time that Davenport has won the Stanford Classic, the JP Morgan Chase title at Carson and the San Diego tournament in succession after pulling off the same feat in 1998, when she went on to win the US Open.

The American has now won 14 consecutive matches. Davenport stunned Serena Williams last week to win in Carson and the previous week she beat Venus Williams for the first time since 2000 in a hard-fought three-set contest to clinch the Bank of the West Classic title in Stanford.

Despite playing with a bandage on her sore right kneecap, three-time Grand Slam winner Davenport completely controlled the San Diego final against the 23-year-old Russian.

After fighting off nine match points to win a 2-1/2 hour semifinal over Vera Zvonareva late on Saturday, Myskina was unable to muster the energy she needed when she came back on court only 14 hours later against Davenport.

FEDERER'S MASTERY

TORONTO: World number one Roger Federer swept past Andy Roddick 7-5, 6-3 to capture the Toronto Masters on Sunday and extend his winning streak to 23 matches. A rematch of last month's Wimbledon final produced a similar result as Federer continued his mastery over Roddick improving his head-to-head record against his American rival to 7-1.

Federer, who turns 23 next week, needed less than 90 minutes under the hot Canadian sun to collect his fourth straight title and eighth of the season - the most since Austria's Thomas Muster won 12 in 1995.

It was also Federer's third consecutive title on three different surfaces, his polished performance indicating the Swiss may be poised to add a first US Open title to Grand Slam wins this year at Wimbledon and the Australian Open.

Federer's winning streak of 23 matches is the longest since Pete Sampras strung together 24 victories in 1999. A sublime opening set had appeared headed for a tie-break until Federer broke Roddick to take a 1-0 lead in the match.

When Roddick's forehand return sailed long it brought an animated fist-pump from the Swiss and rage from the defending champion, who slammed his racket on to the court.

As always there was no surrender from the hard-hitting American who is at his bludgeoning best on the North American hard courts having won his previous seven finals on the surface.

But again Roddick could find no answers, Federer keeping the US Open champion under constant pressure then gaining the decisive break with a stinging crosscourt forehand to go up 5-3 before holding serve to take the title. -Reuters