US OPEN

September 2, 2002

Lindsay Davenport

MODERATOR: Questions for Lindsay.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: None. They just came to me at 5:00 and said, "If it stops raining, you're the first ones out there if it's before 6:00." It was kind of a weird hour. We got close to the 6:00 time frame, so I didn't know if we were playing or not. It was more confusion than anything else. Obviously now I'm so relieved it's over with. I don't remember going out there ever too many times without really warming up, no warm-up, not a lot of notice, and just getting like sent out there.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: No. I mean, we went on a wet court and I hit serves on the wettest court I've ever seen, but that was it.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: No. I couldn't move. I tried to hit a groundstroke. It was pretty hard.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Yeah. Two days in a row was tough. But, yeah, I mean, it seems to happen the most at Grand Slams, especially Wimbledon. I think we've gotten used to that there quite a bit. Overall, I'm very lucky I was able to get out there and even be done at a reasonable hour. I know they still have a lot of tennis to be played tonight. If you can get through matches like that where you may be a little unprepared in the beginning, it definitely may end up helping me.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Yeah. I mean, it was hard for me to get going. I didn't really have a lot of time. It was Love-2. Once I broke back to go 2-All, I guess I lost two more games the rest of the match. Once I got back on serve pretty early, then I felt a lot better out there.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: It's very unusual here. You know, they have a couple different policies with reference to ticket exchanges. You know, the men obviously are in a lot bigger trouble than the women. It's really no big deal for us to play four days in a row, five days in a row. For the men, three out of five sets, it's physically too taxing. I think they obviously try to do their best to satisfy a lot of different entities. It must be a tough position to be in.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I don't think so. I think I've played pretty well so far. I think I can definitely get better. There are definitely parts in my game that I think have been better in the past and could get better. But it's been very difficult conditions in terms of scheduling, waiting to finish matches, waiting around all day. I think it's hard to expect yourself to play perfect tennis in those situations. But I definitely would still like to do a couple things better and will need to do a couple things better if I'm to keep going.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Well, I thought if I was hitting the ball deep and hard, I could maybe overpower her backhand. The wind was going really strong one way. As the case it always is out there, you miss a lot of balls long on the side with the wind, don't seem to hit the ball that hard against. I was trying to pound the backhand, trying to be aggressive and deep with my shots.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: There's a lot of good Russians coming up. It seems like every country kind of goes in cycles. I've always thought that countries that have a lot of players coming up together actually do better. They kind of practice with each other, compete with each other, and are able to kind of encourage each other along. I think Bovina is very good. I think she does everything very well and is very athletic. She's still young, so she could go a long ways. We had Dementieva do well a few years. This year she's struggled. There are a lot of girls out there. You know, it's tough to be consistently good. We'll see in a few years who's able to do that.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: It's a close match now.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Yeah, I've actually never really seen her play. I mean, I know she's done really well. This year, unfortunately, I've been out so much that I haven't really seen her play too much this summer. Hopefully I'll get a chance -- I don't know if I'll go out there tonight, but maybe my coach will. It's a little cold. I know I by no means meant that Bovina was my opponent. I know they still have a tough match to play tonight.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: You just go with who you're given. I'll wait and see.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I think so. I think the other part, this is the only Grand Slam where there's no indoor courts available to the players. Every other Grand Slam, you at least feel like you can hit a few balls or warm up a certain way. They use the indoor courts here for hospitality and for sponsor stuff. I think it would be nice if we had at least one indoor court at our disposal to use. At Wimbledon, I think most of the players stay in walking distance or driving distance, very close. It's a little hard to go back to the city. They always have the right to change the schedule, like they did to me. All day long, I was second on after a men's match, when all of a sudden I get changed to next on. Really, I took that court from the next moment in not a lot of time.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: It seems like we just don't have a lot of say in the Grand Slams. You know, it's the French Open, we don't have one quarterfinal match on center court. I think at every Grand Slam, there's a lot of arguments. I think it's extremely difficult for the men to come back after playing three-out-of-five set semifinals and then finals. I think it would help the organization of the tournament if the policy here was maybe a set time limit of play and not a full match because the women are always put out there first. There's a lot of things about every Grand Slam that you'd like to change. But unfortunately, in the Slams, our respective groups, the WTA and ATP, really when it comes down to it have little to no say in what happens.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Oh, God, no, never fun.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: It's tough. You never know what's going to happen. You never want to do anything too much. Wimbledon, when we had four or five days of rain all those years ago, it was driving everybody crazy. We can all handle a little. Five days, we all go a little batty.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I was told a few different times it was just about clearing up. After about the third or fourth time when it was still raining from eight hours when they first told me, you start to lose hope that it's ever going to, you know, clear up. You know, I was definitely not sure what to do. It helped when they said I was next on. But I think doubles players, you can take it a lot easier, unless you're playing singles and you're next on, it's more stressful.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I think so. It's tough. I mean, I definitely weigh less than I used to, or I'm in better shape. You know, it's taken me a while to get the movement back since I couldn't move on my leg for so long. I feel now that I am a little bit faster, but it's not -- you know, I still have a long ways to go. But I'm trying hard to try and get faster and faster.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: No, never timed myself for anything.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: It hasn't yet. I think the thing that would give me the most problem is, you know, a slippery court. It's very kind of a scary proposition to go out there on a scary court.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Surprised? I wasn't floored. Then they gave me a time thing where if it's after 5:45, we won't put you out there. I looked at the clock, it's 5:40, the court is not dry. Everybody in the referee's office has locked themselves in. I was trying to open the door. They said 10 minutes. "You're still on, but 10 minutes."

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: They gave us 10 minutes out on the court with your opponent, which is kind of a weird scenario, to warm up with your opponent. I started slow because of it, but I expected to. Ideally now I'm happy that it's over. In those few minutes, it was a little bit stressful. No one knew what was happening.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Exactly.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I think it's a meal plan of how you try and give a ratio to the intake of carbohydrates, protein and fat. It was something I mostly did when I was on crutches because it was impossible for me to cook, go to the store, even go out, it was so uncomfortable. It was very convenient to have it all delivered to my house. I still do follow it, but probably not as precisely for the first three months I was off the tour. It's great. I believe in it. But, you know, people are going to critique it, go with it. But it's been really a positive thing for me. I feel overall I have more energy. That was the most important thing.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I would say probably like 30 pounds.