KB FED CUP, FIRST ROUND

April 16, 1999

Monica Seles

Q. Billie, could you talk about, since Davenport is not going to play, how it impacts the matches and the status for the United States.

CAPTAIN BILLIE JEAN KING: Let's have Lindsay talk about her injury, first.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: It's okay. It just really hasn't gotten better since I hurt it almost three weeks ago. And it's just a frustrating injury. It's tendonitis in the left wrist. And unfortunately that's just rest, and I've been doing it on and off, and it hasn't gotten better, so now I've got a lot of weeks ahead of me to just rest.

CAPTAIN BILLIE JEAN KING: To answer your question, the impact on the team, because we're very fortunate in the United States of America, we have so much depth, that it really doesn't have that much impact, although to have Lindsay on our team, obviously, is huge. But it's great that we have Monica. And we have Chanda back. Some of you may remember back in 1996 Chanda at the Olympics had to withdraw because of a very serious wrist problems, she had an operation after that and it's been a long haul, and I really would like to congratulate Chanda on her comeback over the last three years. What are you, 23, in the world already, and she's playing extremely well. I think Chanda is playing the best tennis of her life, I think she's playing better than she used to when she was a rookie on Fed Cup, back whatever year it was. So I would like to congratulate her, and I look forward to seeing her play the next two days. We have Monica, who is a great team player, and loves it. And Lisa is real versatile. She can play singles or doubles. We're still in very good shape. I just hope Lindsay's injury gets well quickly.

CHANDA RUBIN: Yes. I've played a couple of times, '97, it's great. It's very different from playing on the Tour year-round, but I always enjoy coming into the format, to the team competition, playing for our team, supporting each other. And I think it's been great all week, so I'm really looking forward to it and just going out and competing hard and see where we end up.

MONICA SELES: I think I played very well in Amelia, everything came together for me, and hopefully I can carry that momentum into the weekend. I've been playing a lot of tennis, so I'm looking forward to this weekend and then some time off.

CAPTAIN BILLIE JEAN KING: She is playing great. Winning the tournament last week at the Bausch & Lomb, and also she's training very hard physically, which is really important. And she's getting better and better. So she's back in a big way.

CAPTAIN BILLIE JEAN KING: We talked about it, and this is a typical discussion, this is how it goes: "Who wants to play first?" "I'll play first, that would be great." The other one goes, "That would be okay, I'll do that." Then we go, "We have no control over it, let's not sweat it", but that's how it usually goes. "Would you like to play first? Well, that would be great." And then the other one thinks about it, "That's okay with me." And then, yeah, it gets down and we say, "We have no control over this, let's not sweat it." We have fun, we try to have fun with all of our discussions. We don't get too serious.

CAPTAIN BILLIE JEAN KING: Lindsay talked to me, was it Thursday?

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I think it was Wednesday.

CAPTAIN BILLIE JEAN KING: Wednesday, late afternoon. Started to warn me, which was helpful when a player gives you good feedback like Lindsay did, and I know it was a difficult decision for her, but I think it was the right one. And I think health is more important than anything else. So she was very mature in coming to me early and giving me that good feedback, so I could help get together with ready, so the other players know what's expected of them, so we don't have any surprises, so that was helpful. Good team player to do that.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Sometimes. Yeah, I came here trying to hit two hands in the beginning of the week on Tuesday, and by the time Wednesday morning came, it flared up again. So the last few days I've been on the court -- the last few days I've been on the court really more just for the practice, no backhands. That's the fortunate thing, the next few weeks, I can still practice hopefully everything, my serve, my forehand, my volleys, and when the wrist gets better, I'll be pretty ready to play. It's not coming back from scratch, since it's the left wrist. So I'm hoping to make it back by the French Open, but we'll see.