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NEWPORT BEACH BREAKERS MEDIA CONFERENCE

July 15, 2010

Lindsay Davenport

THE MODERATOR: Ladies and gentlemen, we have Lindsay Davenport here. It is a home game for her tonight, being an Orange County resident, however she's playing for the visiting St. Louis Aces tonight.
Thank you for joining us, Lindsay. If you could open up with your thoughts about sort of a professional return here in your home area today.
LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Well, yeah, it's super exciting to be back here and playing. I've been in Orange County since I was 18. I'm now 34. It's been a lot of years.
Slightly bittersweet that I'm not actually on the Newport team, but great to still be able to play here in front of my friends and family, just to be on the court again.
I have two kids. Just to be able to compete is pretty special for me right now.

Q. (Question about playing again.)
LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I thought maybe, and now in the middle of TeamTennis season, no. It's been really, really fun. We've played seven matches, but it's been really tough. It's been great to get back out there, but I think this is a perfect venue for me in terms of only sets to five, and the team atmosphere. I think anything above that would be a stretch for me at this point.

Q. I was going to ask about being a marquee player. They play for a match or two. But you're doing the whole season thing. How is that working out for you?
LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Well, it started off when I agreed to play, I did say I want to play more than two or three matches because I don't play at all anymore. The effort it was going to take me to get ready for two or three matches, I felt like I should play for a little bit more. We agreed on six matches. That sounded good. The schedule came out. I got drafted by St. Louis. They were very, very excited and keen for me to play a little bit more.
I was excited to do it, agreed to do it. It ended up being 10 of the 14. I have three more. Love my team. That's been a lot of fun. We haven't played great. We've done okay. But it's been a fun ride so far. But it's a lot on me, playing three sets. I wasn't used to playing after the babies. But so far it's going okay.

Q. Lindsay, where would you rate your form right now?
LINDSAY DAVENPORT: You know, some nights it's okay and other nights I'm not sure where it is (laughter).
But that just goes with what's happening. I mean, I'm 34. I didn't play much for a year. I started practicing a little bit in April or May. It's a little bit shaky. But, you know, some nights I've been playing pretty well and other nights it's been more of a struggle.
But slowly I'm getting better each match I get under my belt.

Q. Imagine WTT serves as a great outlet for you to continue to play.
LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Yeah, it's a great opportunity for me to get back out on the court, especially now when you have more free time. Billie Jean has always been a great mentor of mine. So love to play TeamTennis. Started when I was 17. It's nice. It's nice to play for fun in a competitive environment.

Q. What is more difficult, being in a Grand Slam final or being a mother of two?
LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Yeah, at least a Grand Slam final you know there's an end in sight. You have like 90 minutes and then you're done.
But, yeah, it's been challenging, absolutely. The two kids, they just turned three and just turned one. It's a handful as any parent would know. We're having a lot of fun with it. But some days you just want to pull your hair out. My son was just having the biggest tantrum I've ever seen here. I'm like, Oh, my God.

Q. Which one was that?
LINDSAY DAVENPORT: My son. He just turned three. He's also known as Buzz Lightyear. Wears his costume daily. If you see a little Buzz around, it's him.

Q. Did he see the new movie?
LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Yeah, we took him to that.

Q. What is it like, being a mom and playing World TeamTennis?
LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Yeah, it's been great. St. Louis, my son runs on the court with me with introductions. He loves it. We were there for eight days. My whole family was there. We had a great time with it.
A little more challenging now with the traveling, coming in and out. Even today I got in from Sacramento at noon and I leave tomorrow morning at 6 a.m. You know, just to see my kids for a few hours. They're going to stay home this weekend. I come back Monday morning. Not easy to leave them. But couldn't take them with me with the schedule we have.
So I get a lot of support from my mom and husband to make it possible. It's a short-term thing so I know starting next week I'll be with them again full-time.
Some nights it's exhilarating to go out there to play and other nights I feel the guilt about not being at home with them. It's constantly kind of a balancing act for me.

Q. You're doing some commentating on the Tennis Channel. How has that been? Is that something you might be wanting to do more often?
LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I hope so. I've really enjoyed getting my feet wet in that career path. The people at the Tennis Channel have been great, given me a lot of opportunities. I feel like the more times you get to call matches, the more times you're in an atmosphere where you're actually commentating on it and not playing, you're going to get better at it. I hope to. Don't want to travel too much. We'll have to see how the schedule works out.
But I think so. I think I can present a unique side where I've played all these I want to say girls, but ladies, that are playing now, competed against them, and I feel like I can read the game pretty well.
So right now a lot of the people commentating are 10 years, 20 years removed from the game. I think combined with them we could offer some really great perspective on the people playing today.

Q. You don't have to whisper covering James Blake's matches?
LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I saw that at Wimbledon. I hope to not be courtside reporting anytime soon.

Q. Keeping it in the family, what is it like playing for your brother-in-law?
LINDSAY DAVENPORT: It's great. Really great. You know, when I first found out I was going to St. Louis, they drafted me. I talked to the owner that day. Kind of said, I don't know if you guys have a coach, but I have a really great brother-in-law. They were great about it. That worked out really well for us.
My husband is the alternate, which provides some unique funny times on the court. I have the two brothers beating down on me about my play. It's been great. Especially when the days get tough, it's nice to have him around, the traveling and stuff. But really lucky that he was able to do it.

Q. Are you going to play doubles at La Costa?
LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I hope to. After TeamTennis, I have a couple weeks, then I'm supposed to play two doubles tournaments and call it a summer. Playing two in California, Stanford and La Costa, which hopefully will go okay.

Q. Then plans to play after that?
LINDSAY DAVENPORT: That is it. I will definitely be hanging the racquets up on the Pro Tour probably till next World TeamTennis season.

Q. How critical is this World TeamTennis season in terms of preparing you for those two doubles matches?
LINDSAY DAVENPORT: It's been great just getting used to playing again. It's funny 'cause I ironically had much more success in singles than the doubles, and I thought it would be the opposite. Been doing really well in mixed. Each night I feel like I'm getting a little bit better in playing matches and reacting and returning a little bit better. But it's tough to kind of cram a bunch of years of not playing into just a few weeks of matches.
But hopefully by the end of the season I'll be hitting my mark.

Q. Who are you playing doubles with?
LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I play with Liga Dekmeijere. Our mixed partner switches between the two guys on our team, Tripp Phillips or Andrei Pavel.

Q. How about at La Costa?
LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Liezel Huber.

Q. She's not bad.
LINDSAY DAVENPORT: No, she's ranked 2 or 3 or something.

Q. I want to ask you about Serena Williams. I think she was featured on the cover of the Sports Illustrated saying she possibly, by the time she's all done, would be the greatest female player ever. I wonder if you agree with that.
LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Absolutely. Absolutely. You know, history still needs to be determined. The next four years will be crucial to that. Serena will be 29 later this year. If you put in context, Steffi Graf quit at 29. I always get these wrong. Maybe 23 Grand Slam titles Steffi had, 22. Serena's just at 12. So she's going to have to step it up the next few years. It's not going to get easier as you get into your 30s. But if anyone can do it, it's Serena. She's so fit. She has the greatest serve of all time. That's just not even debatable. And she plays the big power game.
For her, she's talking so positively about continuing to play, no signs of slowing down. You just can never underestimate her.
Really the next two years will be very crucial, how many Grand Slam titles she can accumulate in that time.

Q. I want to ask you on the Isner/Mahut match, how much did you watch that? It raised questions about a fifth-set tiebreaker.
LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I was at the at Wimbledon covering the tournament for BBC. Just utter shock that that couldn't end. For someone that doesn't follow tennis, to put in it perspective, I think they said it would be playing the equivalent of like eight overtimes in a hockey game or playing to like 50 innings in a baseball game. You can't comprehend the length of that set. Those guys handled it with such class, such dignity. It's amazing.
I think there should be a tiebreak at some point. I don't agree with it at 6-All. But especially for men who play three out of five already and have to come back, you come back and play again, at some point, and I don't know if they could agree on 12-all or 14-all, whatever it would be, but something obviously needs to be done. I think it was 70-68. It was just crazy.

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