TENNIS Davenport wins her 40th singles championship

She won $93,000 to push her career earnings to over $17 million.
AMELIA ISLAND, Fla. (AP) -- Lindsay Davenport elevated her game with a simple approach.
Attacking relentlessly to take advantage of her opponent's fatigue, Davenport beat Amelie Mauresmo 6-4, 6-4 on Sunday to win the Bausch & amp; Lomb Championships for her 40th singles title on the WTA Tour.
"Today's the best I played all week," said Davenport, who felt fortunate to be in the final after starting slowly in a three-set semifinal win over Nadia Petrova.
"I was a little bit lucky to get through that match, playing the level I was playing at," she said. "I don't think I played that well until the end. The last three sets I played were a lot better than the rest of the tournament."
She picked the right time to peak.
Mauresmo drained
Mauresmo entered the final coming off an upset of top-ranked Justine Henin-Hardenne. However, she had to work nearly three hours to get the job done, and Mauresmo didn't have a lot of energy left for Davenport.
"I came out with the game plan of wanting to be aggressive, to try to dictate the points and not get into long rallies," the fourth-ranked Davenport said. "I figured I was going to have a lot of unforced errors because I just wanted to go for it, keeping the points short and looking to attack. I felt like I did that well."
She did have 19 unforced errors -- the same number as Mauresmo -- but Davenport also had 26 winners, seven more than her opponent. And Mauresmo hurt herself with five double-faults, perhaps a sign of fatigue.
Big pay check
Davenport's $93,000 winner's check pushed her over $17 million in career earnings. Only Steffi Graf, Martina Navratilova and Martina Hingis -- tied with Davenport for ninth on the career singles title list -- have won more money in women's tennis.
"I was very tired, plus she was very aggressive and didn't give me much time to do what I wanted to do," said Mauresmo, who earned $47,800 in her first tournament since a 10-week absence with a back injury that forced her out of the Australian Open quarterfinals.
"But it gives me a lot of confidence to play as well as I did," Mauresmo added. "I just want to keep improving."
However, Mauresmo later withdrew from this week's Family Circle Cup, citing a back strain.
Davenport, who owns three Grand Slam singles titles, also won this tournament in 1997 and was the runner-up last year. She dropped the opening game Sunday before winning five straight to take control of the match on green clay.