BILLIE JEAN KING CUP

November 12, 2024

Lindsay Davenport

Danielle Collins

Ashlyn Krueger

Caroline Dolehide

Peyton Stearns

Taylor Townsend

Team USA

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Hello, everyone. Let's start the press conference with Team USA for Billie Jean King Cup. Please raise your hands for questions.

Q. Hello. My question is for Danielle. At what moment did you decide you were postponing that retirement?

DANIELLE COLLINS: I think I'll have to look back on what I said in my social media post, but yeah, I obviously have spoken about, like, fertility stuff. It's very personal.

We're here this week with the team and focusing on being with the team and getting ready to play Billie Jean King Cup. It's really exciting being on the team with some new girls, Ashlyn for the first time, and then with Captain Lindsay. I'm looking forward to a good week here.

CAPTAIN LINDSAY DAVENPORT: We were very excited when Danielle said she would be available in coming to Spain, and I think the whole team and everyone was very excited to hear that and get that news and have her here with us.

Q. Welcome to Malaga. Nice to see you. Peyton, can I ask you, the potential for you to make your Billie Jean King Cup debut this week, how much excitement and anticipation is there for you ahead of that?

PEYTON STEARNS: I'm super excited. I was here last year. It's so much fun to be on a team, playing college tennis. Kind of getting that atmosphere again in the professional realm is something you can't beat.

Q. A similar question, Ashlyn. I don't know how these things work, if you got a telephone call, it's different these days, but how much excitement was there when that communication came through?

ASHLYN KRUEGER: Yeah, I was so excited. Lindsay called me, and I was getting over kind of a back injury and I was ready to go. I have always wanted to play Billie Jean King Cup and be on the team with amazing girls, so I was very excited to get that call.

Q. What were some of your memories of Billie Jean King Cup growing up? What sort of fueled that ambition to play?

ASHLYN KRUEGER: Yeah, I remember watching it as a kid. I got the opportunity to go on the team just as a spectator, as a junior, when I was younger when they went to San Antonio, because I'm from Texas. To see that, to be in that environment and now to be on the team playing is really special.

Q. Lindsay, you have been here as a player obviously. How much are you enjoying being the captain and that role and responsibility change?

CAPTAIN LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Yeah, it's a big change, a lot of responsibility, trying to make sure that all five of my ladies are feeling good, get everything that they want, but it's been an absolute honor and privilege to be with the two teams that I have been with so far this year. Amazing women.

This generation or this, I should say, this group of women get it in terms of this is for the team and for your country. We try and have a really good time and practice and do what we need and get ready for the matches, but it is all about the process and enjoying it and trying to lift each other up, which is so different from the other 49 weeks or so of the year that these ladies are competing.

So I have been very fortunate so far to have everybody who has been on these teams to really love the team concept and kind of understand how it works, also.

Q. Taylor, can I ask sort of what the inside track on the team is sort of behind the scenes, the sort of vibe within the team?

TAYLOR TOWNSEND: You're asking the wrong one. I'm not a snitch (smiling).

No, we all get along really well, and I think that it's really special, because we're able to see each other so many weeks out of the year. So this is something where we're quite familiar with each other, but to be kind of all in one environment, working towards the same goal, it just makes it that much more exciting and the energy that much more intense, honestly.

So we all are really here lifting each other up for whatever we need. Yeah, but the energy is great. Everyone is feeling great. We're ready to go and ready to play. It's the last week of the season, which gives us a little bit extra motivation to push, because we have all had really great seasons and a lot of really great accomplishments from every single person that's sitting here.

I think we have an extra bit of motivation to finish the season on a high note.

Q. For the captain, United States is a very successful team, not only in tennis, in many sports. Do you come here after a few years, like, kind of hurt animal that want to regain what is yours?

CAPTAIN LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Yeah, I was telling the ladies that the U.S. has won it one time since 2000, and that's not really good enough for our country and the standard of our play, and we're obviously here to win it again (smiling).

I'm so fortunate right now with having so many amazing players from the United States. We have the ability to win, and all these players sitting up here know that. They're all in it and they're all here to try and bring home the title, as well.

It's a huge event. It has meant an incredible amount to me throughout my life, and all the players up here are very excited and happy to be here representing their country. We came here to be playing next Thursday night in the final, and that's what we are looking forward to. We've got a lot of steps along the way to get there, but certainly that's our goal.