US OPEN

September 8, 2004

Lindsay Davenport

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Lindsay, please.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Yeah, I got here a little after 9, and, you know, got to warm up from 10:15 to 10:45 with an expected walk-on at 11:15. At 11:14 it started to rain. That happened a couple of times when we were really close to getting out there. But it's not a total shock to tennis players that we have to go through this. Obviously, we all went through this last year and at Wimbledon lots of times. So, you know, I was just -- really wanted to play today, you know. I didn't care what time it was. I didn't want to have to come back here tomorrow and possibly go through the same thing. So I was very excited when we walked on the court and it looked like we were going to have some dry time.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Last year here (laughing). Same thing, we went on really late at night on Armstrong and against Suarez. But, you know, at this point, I just didn't care if there was 100 people there or 10 people; I just wanted to play and get through this one.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Well, I think once you get out there, I mean, I wasn't thinking that it was going to start raining. I just wanted to get through the match and play smart and don't go for too much, just see how she came out, and she came out with a lot of errors. I just kind of went with it. But at about 6-1, 5-1, I thought, "If it rains now, I'm going to die." Then I started to hurry it up a bit (laughing).

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Yeah, I mean, that's the hardest part. If it was solid rain, it's a lot easier than a couple times there, like I said, we were very close to going on court. I pretty much wait around until I see them start to dry. They start to dry, try and move around a bit. Unfortunately, that happened four or five times today. But, you know, I'm just really happy I got it in. They said it didn't look great for tomorrow. You know, get through to semis and be on schedule is phenomenal.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I mean, we do it all the time, you know, at normal tournaments. Obviously, there's not as much pressure, media, and excitement built around those kind of tournaments. But physically, yeah, I mean, it would be fine.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Really, I sat around, I tried to take a nap for a little bit. I didn't fall asleep. I did some crosswords, hung out with my family that's here, and ate a couple times (smiling).

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: You know, it's a tough call because I think the technology is so expensive and I don't know if they could put it on every single court. Yeah, it looks great on center court but there's also, at the US Open, 16 or 17 other courts going on. So I think if you did it, it would have to be across the board and it would have to be fair. You know, then you get into rules. How many do you get? If you're wrong, do you save them? Do you go for it? I don't know, it could be very confusing. But I'm sure they'll try and come up with a way. If it sounds fair across the board, then I'm for it. If it's only on one or two courts, I don't think that's right.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I mean, I'm not really in favor of change in the middle of a tournament. You know, it would be like they thought they wanted us to play three out of five all of a sudden in the finals. You know, there's a change of strategy involved in everything. I wouldn't want to have it change in the middle of a tournament personally.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Yeah, pretty much. It was unfortunate. It seemed like the majority of the calls were all against Serena, and I think that's unlucky. I mean, my father was an umpire, referee of volleyball for many years. He used to lecture me all the time, everyone's trying their best. She made one really bad mistake, okay. But then she never said anything the rest of the match, and there was glaring mistakes that she could have then interjected. You know, then she just kind of kept her mouth shut and it seemed like it made it worse because there were so many balls that then hit the line and then she didn't want to say anything. I think that was worse. Yeah, I mean, big mistake on the one. I think it's worse in the last game that two balls were clearly on the line and not a word from the umpire. So I have a hard time if someone's going to interject and start overruling and then stops. You have to be consistent.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Yeah, it would be a good story line. But, you know, it's one match away, but a really far match away. And, you know, I would rather talk about it when we were both there. I mean, we both have to play a Russian in the next round. I think last year both of us were in the semis and lost to the Belgians. I think we want to change that this year.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Yeah, I've played Petrova many times. I think she's a very good player. You know, had some tough matches with her. Played her in the summer, played her a little bit better. I think she has a big game. When she's playing well, she's very attacking, she has a great serve and she's very aggressive. And it seems like obviously here she's playing well, at least against Henin. Kuznetsova is probably one of the few players I really have never seen play much. I've never played her; I never played her in doubles. I haven't spent tons of time watching her on TV. Know her a little bit, but know that she actually has a pretty big serve. Someone said she served at 125, 126 here. So, you know, have to learn some more about her if she wins.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I think someone said it was on one of the TVs. I probably will for the sheer fact I haven't seen her.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I wouldn't ask.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I don't think so. I'll probably wait in my hotel until like 4 or 5. If it's dry, then I'll come out, obviously. If it looks like it's raining, I'll wait till the end of the day and probably just go ride a bike or something. I've played so much tennis this whole summer and in the last few weeks that, I mean, one day isn't going to make the difference, I don't think, in a semifinal match.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Yeah, I mean, we got out to the court. It was a very long day, very tough day. I think she started off with more errors than she usually makes and I was able to get on top of her early, then I think was just able to maintain that. You know, I felt comfortable returning her serve. And felt like I always had a chance to break her. But I feel like, you know, she didn't play as well as she probably has been playing and probably difficult circumstances, play a quarterfinal late at night on an outside court - or second court.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I think they're extended when it's on TV, a TV changeover. Today he told us there would be no TV changeover. So it's a normal changeover. It seems probably shorter because of the center court ones.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Well, there was no ushers. I just feel if they're going to put us out on the court, maybe the court should be perfectly ready for play. They just kind of kept coming right when I was in the line of my toss. I just asked if they could maybe bring some ushers out even if there weren't that many people. Probably made it worse. You see --

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: He said something like that. I didn't quite hear him. I'm like, "Oh, that's good."

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: They were drying Armstrong first, for whatever reason, throughout the day. They had given me a hint that it was -- if it was around 7, I would probably move to Armstrong. So my court was dry and ready to go. So we were more than happy to go out there when it was ready.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: No, I just wanted to play. I wanted any court, any time. They knew that.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Well, the movement especially because there's so many -- such blue area with all the empty seats. You know, people coming up were probably more distracting than if it was full. But there weren't too many people making lots of noises out there, so that wasn't a real concern.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: There was one, yeah. He was into it.