Davenport’s Win Puts Her in Select Company

Lindsay Davenport defeated an exhausted Amelie Mauresmo of France, 6-4, 6-4, Sunday at Amelia Island, Fla., to win the Bausch & Lomb Championships for her 40th WTA Tour title.

Davenport is only the 10th woman with that many tournament victories, and her $93,000 winner’s check pushed her above $17 million in career earnings. Only Steffi Graf, Martina Navratilova and Martina Hingis have won more money in women’s tennis.

A day after starting slowly in the semifinals against Nadia Petrova of Russia, the fourth-seeded Davenport lost the first game against Mauresmo before winning five in a row to take control of the match played on green clay.

The third-seeded Mauresmo erased a second-set match point en route to upsetting No. 1 Justin Henin-Hardenne of Belgium on Saturday. But that grueling 2-hour 45-minute semifinal clearly took its toll on her.

“I think mentally and physically it took a lot out of her,” Davenport said. “I knew going in that that would be the case. I just tried to take advantage of that.”

Mauresmo, who was seeking her 300th career singles victory, earned $47,800 in her first tournament since a 10-week absence because of a back injury that forced her out of the Australian Open quarterfinals.

Mauresmo later withdrew from this week’s Family Circle Cup, citing a back strain.

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Top-seeded Emilie Loit of France won her first WTA Tour singles title, defeating Ludmila Cervanova of Slovakia, 6-2, 6-2, in the Grand Prix SAR at Casablanca, Morocco.

Pro Football

Adrian McPherson threw five touchdown passes to lead the Indianapolis Firebirds to a 65-31 victory over the Carolina Cobras in an Arena Football League game in front of 9,545 at Indianapolis.

McPherson, who finished with a perfect 158.3 quarterback rating, completed 13 of 15 passes for 194 yards and also ran for a touchdown.

He completed his first 11 passes for 161 yards and three touchdowns as the Firebirds (5-5) won for a franchise-record fifth time in a row. Matt Nagy completed 26 of 43 passes for 289 yards and three touchdowns for the Cobras (3-7).

Raymond Philyaw was 22 for 33 for 265 yards and four touchdowns, leading the Chicago Rush to a 51-36 victory over the Tampa Bay Storm in front of 11,412 at Rosemont, Ill. Etu Molden had 10 catches for 157 yards and two touchdowns for the Rush (7-2). Shane Stafford completed 22 of 33 passes for 281 yards and five touchdowns for the Storm (3-7).

John Kaleo passed for 247 yards and four touchdowns to lead the Austin Wranglers (6-3) to a 42-26 victory over the Georgia Force (4-6) in front of 8,868 at Austin, Texas.

Miscellany

It was a family affair for the Velardez family Saturday night in the Orange Show Fairgrounds at San Bernardino. All six Velardez brothers dazzled a hometown crowd by winning their boxing matches.

The brothers, whose father promoted the card and wound up giving away a healthy portion of the house’s tickets, had a relatively easy time in most of the bouts.

Oldest brother Armando Velardez, 24, won his welterweight bout by knocking out Miguel Ruiz of Reno at 2 minutes 17 seconds of the 10th round.

Junior-lightweight Bobby Velardez knocked out Mike Juarez of Council Bluffs, Iowa, in the second round.

Junior-welterweight Alex Velardez was trailing on the judges’ cards in four of the first five rounds, but rallied to win a unanimous decision over Roglio Barron of Fort Worth to win the World Boxing Council title for boxers under 23.

The three younger Velardez brothers -- Carlos, 16; Jonathan, 16; and Chris, 17 -- won amateur bouts to open the card.

Bowling Green has hired a Colorado assistant football coach who was suspended amid a recruiting scandal that includes rape allegations and other misconduct by football players.

Vance Joseph will coach the defensive backs, the school said. He was put on administrative leave by Colorado last week. The school refused to say why he was suspended.