Serena fights back for gallant win
 |  Williams won her first group match after a titanic struggle |
| |
LOS ANGELES -- Serena Williams came back from a set and two breaks down to beat Anastasia Myskina 4-6 6-3 6-4 on the opening night at the WTA Championships.
World number one Lindsay Davenport was more impressive in her first match in the Red Group, thrashing Russian Elena Dementieva 6-0 6-1.
U.S. Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova powered past fellow Russian Vera Zvonareva 6-2 6-4 in the only Black Group match of the night.
The top two will advance to the semi-finals after the round robin stage.
Williams has played sparingly recently months and it showed during the two-hour contest as she hit 61 unforced errors to 41 from Myskina.
The Russian moved her about the court for the first set and half, but after falling behind 0-3 in the second Williams began to play more consistently and found the range on her serve.
Myskina lost eight straight games and committed a slew of unforced errors before hitting back in the third set. But serving at 3-3, Myskina was broken when Williams forced her into a forehand error.
The Russian fought off three match points in the final game before Williams sent down a 110-mile-per-hour (177 kph) ace on her fourth.
"I really wanted to win. I've been working hard the past couple weeks. I'm just taking baby steps. Whatever happened, I was going to keep fighting," said Williams.
Myskina said that she needed to learn how to close out matches.
"Maybe I thought I had already won the match," she said. "When I was ahead I stepped back and was hoping for her mistakes. Maybe I thought it was going to be that way the whole second set. But unfortunately Serena started playing better."
Davenport flew past Dementieva, who had trouble keeping the ball in the court, and although a number of the games were close the American won nearly all the important points.
"I was happy to get her in the first match because she's the type of player who gets better as tournaments go on," said Davenport. "I played well."
Kuznetsova almost lost control of her contest in the second set, when she allowed Zvonareva to claw back from 5-1 to 5-4. But on her fourth match point, the emotional Zvonareva flailed at a backhand.
"I know the way Vera is," said Kuznetsova. "Once I lost to her because she started crying and talking during changeovers. But she has played so many tournaments in a row and came in tired. I was trying to focus."
In Wednesday's Black Group action second seed Amelie Mauresmo will face Zvonareva followed by Kuznetsova against Wimbledon champion Maria Sharapova, while in the Red Group Williams plays Dementieva.
