Rubin beats Davenport for LA title

Chanda Rubin was forced to come behind to beat defending champion Lindsay Davenport 5-7, 7-6, 6-3 in a close final at the Los Angeles Open on Sunday.

Third seeded Davenport broke to serve out for the match at 5-4 in the second set, but Rubin rallied, was always ahead in the tiebreak, and sealed her victory by winning the final three games of the two hour, 19 minute match.

It was Rubin's third final and second title of the year -- she lost the Spanish Open final in May and won the Wimbledon warm-up event on the Eastbourne grass in June.

But the 26-year-old said it was her biggest tournament win, given that she upset world number one Serena Williams and number five Jelena Dokic as well as the third seeded defending champion.

"It was a difficult match," she said. "I started off a bit nervous and never really relaxed. What won me the match was that I stayed in there and fought.

There was little to chose between the two Americans throughout the match, although Davenport had the edge in the serve.

Both were bothered by the sun at one end of the court on a very hot day in southern California and that resulted in 11 double-faults from Davenport and 10 from Rubin.

Davenport, also 26, was able to compensate with 12 aces, but she failed to find any consistency with her groundstrokes or her serve and 12th seeded Rubin always looked the better athlete.

The match also marked another stage in the comeback from injury for both players, who underwent knee surgery from the same doctor in the same week of January this year.

Rubin returned to action at the German Open in May, while Davenport returned just three weeks ago.

"She was maybe a little bit tired because this was her first final after being out," said Rubin. "And I knew if I went in and played a real good match I'd have a chance to win.

"Even going to a third set it was just fighting to get the break and make her play.

"If she was going to outplay me, fine, but I didn't think at that point she'd be able to do that."

Davenport said the match could have gone either way.

"The whole match was back and forth, back and forth," said Davenport. "If I had broken to get back to four-all (in the third set) who knows. There were a lot of close games, and really she just played a lot tougher on those big points.

"I had a ton of chances, she had a ton of chances, and at the end she was the one who came up with the right shots at the right moments."

Although Davenport appreciated that she had done well to reach the final in just the third tournament of her comeback, she was more than disappointed with the way she served.

"I'm disgusted. A lot of my game revolves around my serve and I had zero rhythm," she said.