US OPEN

September 5, 2005

Lindsay Davenport

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Lindsay, please.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Yeah, it felt really good. You know, whenever it's an early match, you're always a little bit -- myself, I'm always a little concerned with how much time you have to get ready, everything. But it worked out really well. I mean, this is one of the best matches I've played for sure here so far, and I felt like I was really aggressive and yet I could move well. My back wasn't a problem. You know, I was consistent, hitting the ball hard, very excited about that.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Yeah. I mean, I've played her a bunch of times. She's given me some problems in the past. In Australia, I was really struggling to really control the points. And here today, I felt like even some of the games I lost, I was really dictating the points, hitting the ball well, not letting her take the balls early and step in.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Well, every day's different, so I don't know. But today was the best match I've played since Wimbledon, I think, even, I think, including New Haven. It's the kind of tennis I want to play. Now what happens on Wednesday, I have no idea. But I hope so. Really happy to be in the quarters, be going -- doing well again in another Grand Slam. It's a tricky match-up whoever I play, really different styles. I could play Schnyder, who would try to give me no rhythm. I could play Dementieva, who will try to hit the ball harder than I do. I'm going to wait to see who I play. But I'm just going to have to hopefully stay kind of on the roll I've tried get going and stay healthy, play well.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: A little bit. I mean, every day, like, starts over for me. At Grand Slams, if you have one bad day, no matter what happens, you've got to find a way to pull through. So each morning that I have a match, it starts over for me. I'm going to have obviously tougher matches from here on out. Hopefully I'm up to the task.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Well, hopefully not. At this point, I've not related exactly by her. I mean, sure, we go through times when there's a certain shot you don't want to hit. But, I mean, the girl is such a great athlete and so good off the ground. Like I've seen her practice. I've seen her serve great in practice. I remember watching her practice once for that particular reason. Then coming off going, "Okay, it has to be mental." The girl had a great motion and was hitting it well. She goes in streaks with it. I've seen her serve okay for a match. Then I heard the other day, it wasn't so good again. You know, she managed to get to two Grand Slam finals last year with it. Just think what she could do with it if she improved and she kind of got over that hump. She's a fantastic player.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: You try to (smiling). You try and really take advantage of that. The problem is a lot of times you don't know what you get. It could be like the tightest moment and she'll try to hit her second serve at 105 and 110. Another time it comes in at 55. I'm not sure if she knows exactly what she's going to do, so it's tough as a returner to kind of gauge. Almost always it goes to the forehand. That's obviously an advantage to know that. But, you know, I don't know if she's been trying to mix it up more or what she's been working on with it, but we'll see.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Nothing really in those terms. I've maybe had a match where I had like I remember 10, and I was just freaked out by that. So I hit serves for a while afterwards. You know, like to think that my motion is pretty sound. Obviously, it could be better. It could be like Pete's or someone like that. But I think it holds up for the most part fairly well.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: God, you know, I mean, I would say for sure my groundstrokes would be Robert Lansdorp. We didn't work so much on the serve. Probably it evolved more with van't Hof than Lansdorp. But I don't know, probably a little bit natural. But then you kind of change things as you get older.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Yeah, I don't -- I don't know. I mean, it seems like the top players are really stepping up and have been getting through with relative ease. It's hard to sound too cocky about that. The scores, the top players are definitely playing well here. I think that's what we all try and do, is play your best at the Grand Slams and be in a position to try and win them and do your schedules around all of that and training around that. But I think normally there's a few more closer matches in there.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I was not. I mean, I thought tennis-wise Venus was playing a little bit better. I had no idea what went into it mentally for the two of them and what kind of obstacles that provided for the match. But, you know, watching her play a little bit the first few rounds, I thought Venus looked like she was playing well. I mean, when she's playing consistent and she's playing -- she can make more balls than she's missing, she's playing tough. I thought that was the case. I didn't see much yesterday so I wasn't sure. But I would have been more surprised maybe at the other result.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I think that you are really, at the end of the day, judged on how many Grand Slam titles you have, first of all, and probably how many -- second, how many titles you have. You know, for me, I've been in tons of finals, and always like semifinals, second weeks of Grand Slams. I'm that kind of consistency. But I think overall it's really measured on how many championships you can win. So in that case, I think I'm for sure behind a lot of the other girls that are playing now, whether they stop now or continue to go on years and years. But it's something that I've always taken a lot of pride in, always going out there and giving a good showing. I just haven't won as many as I would have liked.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Oh, God, I have no idea. I don't know. I would be -- I don't want to venture into that one.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I mean, I think so. Probably more so Kim, because she's had more finals maybe. But, yeah, I mean, that's what everyone talks about when they're playing, you know, in a big match. "Oh, Kim has done this." They continue on with that story. In the same regard, even though I have three, I feel like that's the same with me. But it's been so long. It's been five years or whatever it's been. There's just a lot of emphasis on it, something that everyone would like to change, try and get more or get one.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I don't know the biggest change. I guess I wasn't really aware of that. I guess if I really sat down and thought about it. One of the pre US Open interviews it was brought to my attention and it seemed like an awful lot. The biggest change for me, I swear, was when they moved into Ashe in '97. I think from then I've really been a really good performer at this tournament. I've never particularly liked Armstrong. That court, I never played so well my early years there. But the biggest thing, I would probably love to be able to look back and see me playing like my first match here in '91. That would really be a big trip. I'm such a different person, different player. That would be funny.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Really? I don't know. Gosh, I haven't played a match there -- I think I played one there last year.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: It's hard to say. I don't know. I mean, whenever -- I had a really tough time before '97. I don't think I'd been past the quarterfinals. Then in '97, it was semis and pretty much that on. Maybe one quarterfinal in the rest of the years. Just have enjoyed that court. I don't know why. It's so big. I don't know why that's the turning point. I wish I knew. Obviously, I became a better player in those years regardless. I think I just had a couple losses early on in Armstrong early on in my career that weren't particularly memorable. I felt like every time on Ashe, I've done a little better.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Both. I mean, at this point now I'm feeling that it hasn't quite entered my mind that I didn't play that much this summer. I feel like I've played four matches in New Haven, four matches here, so it's been eight matches in two weeks. Hopefully that's enough matches. I mean, I've played a long time, been in a lot of situations. I don't think that will come into play. You know, I'm hoping for another opportunity and a close match to hopefully play my best tennis again and see what happens this time.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Yeah, it's never bothered me. It's never been something that I particularly worry about. You know, obviously it's a great accomplishment to be back at No. 1, but it's not something that I need week in and week out, to have a party thrown for me and be able to celebrate it. I feel like I've been there a lot in my career. That wasn't really the goal in New Haven. The goal was to try to play matches and get ready for her. It so happens I won the tournament and I think by winning it became No. 1 again. But it wasn't the goal of mine. No, I mean, I hope to be around again here this weekend and see what happens. But as far as how many lines someone gets in an article or how many minutes they get on TV, I don't really care.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: It was a really, really tough situation. Obviously, not to take anything away from her, I've never actually been that tired trying to play a semifinal match with the day before playing Molik for I think it was 3 hours 15 minutes, then going out to play a doubles match, getting home at 10 p.m. and having a semifinal the next day. I don't necessarily play my best when I'm tired or act the best (laughter). I knew it was a ton of pressure at that moment. I had such a great opportunity to be in a final again. It was all like -- it was a lot of pressure on me. I felt it quite a bit. I played like it. I'm not quite sure how I ended up winning that match, but it made it much more difficult than maybe it had to be. At the same time she came out and played really well. That kind of confounded all the emotional duress I felt I was under and physical strain. I'm proud of that match, pulling that out, getting to the finals. I just wish I hadn't played for likes six hours the day before.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: It came up a lot at Wimbledon. I would say there's no way if I would have won that one extra point that I would have stopped there. It's not really in my mind at that case. If I won here, I wouldn't stop. I would finish the year. I have plans to go through whatever it is so far of next year. I mean, that's everyone's dream. That was so great how Pete was able to do that. I just don't think I'm in that position quite yet.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: It was tough to take. I mean, I was on such a great roll, really felt like it was going to be quite similar to '98, and really felt like I was playing well and the favorite. Then, you know, it didn't happen. Came up against someone that played really well, felt no pressure, went on to win the tournament. This year it's totally different. I didn't play all these tournaments in the summer. I only played one. But I still feel pretty good. I've kind of gathered that you have absolutely no idea what to expect any more, and I'll just kind of take it as it happens.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: No, I have transport this year.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: He's here. He's still here.