MANHATTAN BEACH, California (Ticker) -- After a seven-month injury layoff, Lindsay Davenport of the United States has re-discovered her form of a year ago.

Davenport, the third seed and defending champion, cruised past Ai Sugiyama of Japan on Saturday, 6-3, 6-4, to reach the final of the $585,000 JP Morgan Chase Open.

The 26-year-old Davenport will be gunning for her fourth career Manhattan Beach hardcourt title on Sunday, when she meets fellow American Chanda Rubin. The 12th seed crushed fourth seed Jelena Dokic of Yugoslavia, 6-0, 6-2.

Davenport underwent knee surgery in January and was sidelined until July, when she made her 2002 debut at the Fed Cup. Since then, the three-time Grand Slam titlist reached semifinals in consecutive weeks at Stanford and San Diego before advancing to the championship match here.

"There's no question I'm tired physically, but mentally I'm still excited," Davenport said. "I have chance to win my first title of the year. I didn't think it would come nearly this quick. I'm really looking forward to tomorrow. Then I'm done for eight or nine days."

Davenport continued her mastery of Sugiyama, improving to 7-0 in their lifetime series.

She also raised her record on the WTA Tour this year to 9-2.

But no matter the result in the final, Davenport is performing well beyond her expectations.

"I think in my mind I have it," she said. "If I don't get a tournament title in my first three tournaments back, that's OK. I've got two semis and a final. Certainly, I'm going to go out tomorrow and try to win another title. That would be really amazing for me."

Davenport blasted 29 winners in the 67-minute match against Sugiyama, who upset No. 2 Jennifer Capriati of the United States in straight sets in Friday's quarterfinals.

Davenport also has dominated her potential opponents in the final, owning a 7-0 mark against Dokic and winning 8-of-10 career meetings with Rubin.

"I have no idea who is going to win that match," Davenport said. "I think it will be interesting to see how Chanda comes back after a very long match, emotionally and physically, and a huge win."

Rubin upset world No. 1 and top seed Serena Williams in the quarterfinals, snapping the 21-match winning streak of the reigning French Open and Wimbledon champion.

Rubin moved into her third final of the year, having won the Eastbourne grasscourt title.

But Dokic had complained all week of struggling with the flu and it finally seemed to catch up with her on Saturday.

"I started off playing well not knowing what was wrong with her," Rubin said. "I think she sort of packed it in early in the second set when she did get up right away."

"I wasn't feeling good. I've had a lot of matches and I couldn't even give 10 percent physically and mentally tonight," Dokic said. "Physically I couldn't move and mentally I couldn't think the points through."

The top prize is $93,000.