WIMBLEDON

June 29, 2004

Lindsay Davenport

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Lindsay, please.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: To the semifinals at least (smiling). That's all I know now.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: No, no.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Happy. You know, yesterday was -- you know, it was 4-4, but it was the toughest match I'd had here. Coming out here, you never know what to expect. I mean, she's very young, can obviously play great tennis. I thought I handled the situation very well. Got on top of her early in both sets and didn't really allow her to ever really dictate play too much. You know, just really kept the pressure on her, I felt.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: It feels really good. I mean, every match has been two sets, felt like I, most importantly, served well in every match. That's saved me a lot. So it's hard to compare. I can't remember how well I was playing five years ago. But I feel like at this point today, I'm hitting the ball well and serving well and doing the things that I need to do well on grass to succeed.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I think it's just a really great thing for us to achieve, just the consistency that we've had in our careers, the longevity. I mean, this is like I think my 12th year, and to still be successful and still be at the top of the game is a huge accomplishment. You know, I haven't won a Grand Slam in four years, but I feel like I've been - when healthy - in the Top 4 or 5 for almost the last eight years, seven years. I mean, that's a pretty good accomplishment.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Oh, no. I can't be making statements like that here now.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: There's probably a good chance that's the case. But nothing definitive.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: No. You know, I plan in my mind to, no matter what, play out this year and then kind of go over it in my mind again.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Well, I think in women's tennis, we've had so much success with American women the last few years, I don't know really what kind of overall factor that would bring. I think the level of interest, especially in, like I said, women's tennis, with the Williams and Jennifer, myself, mostly due to the Williams and their just enormous popularity, tennis has gotten a little bit more popular and a little bit more reaching into other areas. But I don't know overall what kind of impact that would have or would not have.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I think it's a factor of a lot of things. I think, one, I still love to play tennis, and I still treat it very seriously. But, I mean, there's no question, you know, marriage and everything else is a higher priority. It just gets harder and harder to go away for weeks on end. Most importantly I think injuries kind of curtail the excitement that there is to play. You know, some days when you don't really feel all that eager to go practice, it just becomes harder and harder to do and more tedious. So I have not set a definitive timetable. I don't want this to become a major story. But, you know, I mean, as you get older, I'm 28 now, I don't foresee myself playing many more, no.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I don't think it's strange. It's intriguing. I think it's funny, especially here, you know, to sit when there's six or seven Russians in the top locker room and there's only about 16 or 20 players in there. That it's just different. It's not any worse or any better. I mean, a lot of my good friends don't play anymore. They're retired now. But, you know, I still have some friends around and it's still -- if I didn't enjoy it at all, I wouldn't be here at all. So there's still some enjoyment left.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: No. I think that young players come up all the time and older players go out all the time. I think "changing the guard" is a little severe. I think one point in the '90, we lost Novotna, we lost Graf, we lost Navratilova, Sanchez. Still players like the Williams come up and take over the game. I think that's just the natural cycle that happens.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Yeah, I think she has a big game. I think I've always been honest with the fact that I'm a huge fan of her game and how she plays. It's going to be a good match-up. She serves well and hits big groundstrokes. So I hopefully look to take her out of that. I'd like to be able to serve well and serve a lot of consistent first serves, if I can, and try and keep the balls hard and deep and not let her get a first -- get ahead in the rally, get the offensive. You know, that's about it. It's not, you know, really strategic game plan, it's just kind of the basics I feel I need to do well.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: You know, could be similar. I haven't watched her play all that much. I've seen glimpses here and there. We're both baseliners and we both hit pretty hard. In those terms, I guess they're pretty similar.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: The faster surfaces definitely make life a lot more easy for myself, whether it's a fast hard court or fast indoor court or grass. Definitely feel more comfortable -- the faster the court, the better.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Between?

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: You know, anything fast I'll take.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Well, I don't know. It could be next week, it could be six months from now, it could be eight months. I think there will just come a time when I'll know. I don't believe in announcing a farewell tour and saying, "Oh, this is the last this place, the last this place." I mean, I'm just going to walk away when I feel like I don't want to be out here competing and feel like I can really be a factor anymore.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: You know, I don't know. It's been, you know, an amazing career, such a consistent career in terms of rankings and results and everything in that regard. I really don't know. I mean, I know that I've always made really great contact with the ball and hit the ball well, stuff like that. I've worked really hard on trying to improve the areas of my game that I felt needed to be improved and needed to be better. I don't know too much more, though.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I hope so. I mean, I think that a lot of times my performance revolves around how I'm feeling and how I play. You know, sometimes definitely the other player's too good, but more times for me personally I feel like it's my fault win or lose, or it's up to me. You know, face my toughest opponent yet in the next round, someone that hits very hard and can take me out of my game. I'm going to try to do that to her first. Feel like if I can play up to a certain standard, a level of tennis for the next match, I've got a great chance. Then I'll take it from there if I need to.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Well, I think it's great. But, you know, three weeks ago everyone was saying how the older players weren't doing well because two new players got to the French. It changes as each tournament goes on and depending what surface we're playing on. But I still have a lot of confidence in myself, especially the faster the court the better. And I've always -- the last few years anyways, have been very good record here at Wimbledon and I've enjoyed playing here very much.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Just having two surgeries in about a year and a half is just tough to deal with. As soon as I came back from my knee, early the next year, I had some problems with my foot. And it lasted six or seven months before I had to have surgery for that. I think it just kind of breaks it up. This year I've been really fortunate that I have had no major injuries. You know, I've enjoyed it so much more. It really is amazing when you go through stuff like that, how you take for granted just feeling healthy and waking up from a match and not hurting to put shoes on or to walk around. So I'm glad that this year I've really gotten a chance to play with no major setbacks.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: It's a good match. I look forward to watching that tomorrow. I think Jennifer is playing really well. I watched a bit of her play today against Petrova. I think the grass probably favors Serena slightly, because I think she enjoys the fast surface. Probably even tougher to get her serve back. But, you know, Jennifer beat her in Paris, has a lot of confidence I think here, and is fast enough and gets a lot of balls back. She's going to definitely make Serena play. I think it's up to Serena, how consistent she is with her groundstrokes and how well she serves.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I really don't think so (smiling).

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Yeah, I think it's exciting. I think a lot of times he -- Robert Lansdorp doesn't get a ton of credit for the players that worked with him. Pete worked with him for a bit. I worked with him from about 9 to maybe 14. He had a huge influence on my game, especially the years I was developing what shots and my strokes. He's the one that really molded my game in that regard. Other people then took me onto the professional level, but he's been a very important influence on my life. I think he's been the same for Maria. Although I think she also goes to Bollettieri's and maybe a couple other people. He's a great guy and one that's always had a special place in my life. Still a really big fan of his.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: No. I haven't talked -- I mean, no. I mean, I haven't talked to him, haven't called him for 15 years about a match. I see him and stuff, but no. I think I still know his phone number, which is pretty good.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: It's tough to say that that would affect her play when she's still coming back from being off the tour for eight months because of a pretty major knee surgery. I think that they're remarkable in their regards to being able to balance a lot of stuff and still have a successful career. They've been able to do that the last few years. But I would kind of rate her performance this year as not being as good as last year, more for being out of the game for so long and probably not being able to hit a ball for - who knows - four or five months. It took her so long to come back and she's probably still feeling her way back and feeling confidence in her knee. I would contribute (sic) it more to that than photo shoots and everything else she does.