PILOT PEN TENNIS

August 26, 2005

Lindsay Davenport

Q. You seemed a little bit disappointed with your forehand at times. Was it just feeling off or what was it?

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: No, I thought I hit it pretty well.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I don't know about that. I think just in my game in general, my forehand is my best shot.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I think just I feel like sometimes I am just missing some errors just I got to make them, like I am not sometimes ready for balls to come back, and I might have said something about it after missing like one of them, but, you know, I just feel like getting better just not reacting all the time to balls that are coming back and therefore hitting balls late or not hitting them the way I would want to.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I think so. Sometimes I will serve one and then oh, whoops it comes back, or seeing short balls and moving in for them, but felt like I was a little bit sharper tonight and didn't have kind of the lapses that I went through yesterday. And was a little bit sharper in that aspect.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: More consistent tonight. Mainly I felt like I wasn't going for as big as serves as I was yesterday, sometimes I would go for big ones, but just trying to get the rhythm. I felt like I had a much better tempo to my serve tonight than yesterday. And I will just keep trying at the work on it.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I mean, I don't know, I didn't hear any overrules so that's what -- I didn't really see the ball bounce. I wasn't arguing with the call. I heard her call out; then I didn't hear anything. I was asking the umpire what transpired there. I don't know, I mean, I didn't -- it was not really an issue except it was an overrule. But other than that, you know, I should have played a better game besides getting to that point anyways so it was kind of my fault to be in that position. I was glad I came back the next service game and broke her so that was important.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Weird summer. I think both of us would have preferred to be able to play the whole summer and see then what would have happened but both of us have hardly played, so it's funny how that works out.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Yeah, I mean, it is what it is. We'll see, the US Open obviously will determine a lot and the end of the year ranking probably is more important than what happens while the US Open is taking place, so I know if I win the US Open I will most likely stay there, so I will just concentrate on that.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I am excited to be back there. I wouldn't have necessarily predicted that at the beginning of the week. I just didn't know exactly how my game would be. Obviously I am a consistent performer, but the way everything has kind of panned out it's been a good week for me, just trying to win matches and trying to be out there and win and compete when I don't feel like I am playing my best, and looking forward to another opportunity. I have always played really good players here in the finals. This is no exception, and Amelie and I played such a tough tough match at Wimbledon that I expect another one tomorrow.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I hope. I am just kidding. (Laughs) of anyone, I think she's probably the most fit player we have on Tour. I mean, she looks like she's in incredible shape again. While I hope that's the case I will just except that she will be ready to go.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I don't always look to past records. I think grass is a tough indicator. I think that -- I don't know what tactics she will use tomorrow, but at Wimbledon she was serve and volleying every serve. I can't imagine that will be the case on a hard court, even second serves sometimes she was coming in at Wimbledon. I think she kind of chip-charges all the time on the grass and does that well. I haven't seen her do that at all here the matches she's played. We have played number of times on hard courts but none too recently I don't believe. So I watched her play a bit today although I think my style of game is very different than Medina. For me, I think I will try and use the same tactics I always do against her which is really try and rush her and kind of pound the ball deep so she doesn't really have a chance to step in, especially with her backhand, and try and attack her second serve and not let her come in and use her feel and everything she does so well.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Age never comes into a factor when I am playing someone. I remember coming off the court in Indian Wells someone was like that girl you played was 15, I am like, oh, my God, so glad I didn't know that before. So I try not to think about it. We can play people of all different ages out here. Obviously you hope to think that you have the experience on your side, and just a lot of really young great teenage players we have right now.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: It was not easy obviously. Made it more difficult by a back injury that was coming and going. I would be fine for a couple of days; then I wouldn't be okay. That was really frustrating. On top of getting obviously so close to winning Wimbledon. But after I realized in Stanford that I couldn't -- wasn't going to be able to play for a number of more weeks, I had a nice summer. (Laughs). I think I was really wanting to come back and really wanting to come back well and I think I pushed myself too hard to get ready for kind of the California hardcourt swing and finally at Stanford when I went to play and I couldn't turn at all to my left I kind of let everything go and was a little bit disappointed to miss my favorite part of the year, but I will say I was not unhappy to be home all summer. It was kind of nice.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I hope. I think it will be a little bit more difficult tomorrow. I think she's able to mix the balls up very well and kind of try and keep me off balance and off rhythm, be a tough physical match, but I will try and pick a part her game the best that I can and try and break it down.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I only went to the beach once. I do that once a year whether I like it or not. I don't like sitting in the sun too much but I did go in the water. For a couple of periods of the summer I wasn't really able to be that physical, so I pretty much was staying at home and calling my husband a lot at work seeing when he was coming home. Just begging my trainer to let me do something. Other than that, a lot of it was spent trying to rehab my back and seeing my family. I saw my nieces and nephews quite a bit. Even though I just couldn't be that active so it was boring but it was nice. I realize that it wasn't too bad being at home.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: No, I don't cook at all.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: It does. It still feels really good. Hopefully I am over, I think, the biggest problem that I had with it, and hopefully it doesn't come back.