Davenport Blisters Thailand’s Tanasugarn

Searching to regain her Olympic gold-medal touch, Lindsay Davenport raced Friday into the round of 16 at the Australian Open.

Davenport took only 45 minutes to score a 6-1, 6-0 rout of Thailand’s Tamarine Tanasugarn, a year younger than the 20-year-old Davenport and born a few miles from her in Los Angeles.

Since her Olympic triumph in Atlanta and winning a WTA Tour tournament in Los Angeles, Davenport has struggled mightily.

“I was winning more matches than I ever had done before, so I played so much more tennis,” Davenport said. “But by the end of the year I was so fried, I didn’t really want to play. It was tough.”

After losing to Graf in the quarterfinals of the season-ending Chase Championships, Davenport “didn’t look at a racket for about 2 1/2 weeks,” then eased back into practice before coming to Australia feeling recharged.

Though she hasn’t gone on any crash diet, the once-husky Davenport has shed so much weight through workouts she could fairly be described as slender. That has helped her movement on court, and she’ll need all the quickness she can muster, since she’s on course to play the top-seeded Graf again in the quarterfinals.

Graf, whose chronic back problems have flared in the past couple of days, struggled to beat Argentina’s Ines Gorrochategui, 7-5, 6-3, after trailing 2-5 in the first set.

Germany’s Anke Huber, seeded fifth and runner-up to Monica Seles last year, also advanced to the fourth round, with a 7-5, 6-0 victory over Natasha Zvereva of Belarus. Huber next meets 1995 champion Mary Pierce, who beat qualifier Marketa Kochta of Germany 6-0, 6-2.

Spain’s Carlos Moya, conqueror of defending champion Boris Becker in the first round, stayed hot with a 6-2, 6-2, 6-2 victory over Bernd Karbacher.

Moya next plays Sweden’s Jonas Bjorkman, a 6-4, 7-6 (7-5), 6-3 winner over Karsten Braasch. Ninth-seeded Marcelo Rios beat Gilbert Schaller of Austria, 4-6, 7-6 (7-2), 6-1, 6-1. Unseeded MaliVai Washington beat Australian Todd Woodbridge, 4-6, 6-2, 6-3, 6-1, to reach the fourth round against 14th-seeded Felix Mantilla of Spain, a 6-3, 1-6, 7-6 (7-4), 6-4 winner over France’s Arnaud Boetsch.

Ukrainian Andre Medvedev, who beat Michael Stich to reach the third round, kept going with a 6-1, 6-1, 6-1 rout of Dennis van Scheppingen of the Netherlands.

Graf, who said she’s been waking up with a stiff back the past couple of days, started out with a rash of errors, especially forehands into the net.

But trailing, 2-5, Graf turned up her power and accuracy, losing only two of the next 22 points, breaking serve twice and wrapping up the set with two service winners. From there, Graf’s victory was never in doubt.