US OPEN

September 2, 2001

Lindsay Davenport

MODERATOR: Questions for Lindsay.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Just got down early, the early break, 2-Love. Just a couple of double-faults, a couple errors. All of a sudden it was 3-Love, then 4-Love. At that point I must admit I was looking forward to the third set, trying to get a better start (laughter). But just didn't play well, conditions were rough, didn't handle them probably appropriately today. But the third set, started playing a little bit better, cut down a little bit on the unforced errors, hopefully played a little bit smarter there at the end.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Nothing major. My knee gave me a couple twinges there. Down 4-Love, 5-Love, I thought, "Okay, I'm going to save myself till the third set." Then it didn't really bother me again. I think it's okay. I don't know. I don't think it's a big deal. I tried to move a little bit better in the third. I'm going to go and hit a little bit more. I don't think it's a problem.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Yes, this one shot that gave me a little bit of a pain. But it was already Love-4. Not like it cost me to get down or anything.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: The right.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: No. It was just the once. I thought, "I'm going to wait till the third set." Like I said, it was already Love-4, Love-5. Had no bearing on the match whatsoever.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Well, fortunately I broke the first game, got broken again. I just think I served so -- not smart in the wind. Toss was going all over. I still was trying to hit it too hard, not make a high enough percentage of first serves. When you're always hitting second serves, you're never really getting the offensive on the rallies, especially on your own service game you want to do that. Just, you know, had to struggle out there today. You know, got through it. Going to go and try -- you know, I have to try and get better, get more confident, get a little bit more concentrated or have a better game plan next time.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: They're two different opponents. Serena would be a lot more hard-hitting match, you know, a lot more on a fast court who is dictating play. You know, a lot of power tennis there. With Henin, obviously I get more opportunity to hit some more balls. But great players. It's tough to say. Obviously with Justine, I'm dealing with more of a slice backhand, one-handed backhand. But another quick player. Serena, you're dealing with powerful, hitting off both sides.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I don't really know. I think it was a little bit of a surprise in terms of she made a great upset beating Jennifer after Jennifer won the first two Slams. I haven't seen her play much since then. I think she's only played two tournaments and did I think average, quarterfinals maybe, around there. We'll have to see. There's another big match for her, big tournament. We'll see what happens today. It's hard to say maybe before this match.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Well, I just said at tournaments, a lot of times it's very proper. I didn't mean tennis, the sport, wasn't fun. I just meant if ever you go to another sporting event, whenever there's a time-out or break in the action, they're doing something to try to entertain the fans. A lot of times people get bored or they want something to do. In tennis we have quite a few. I think what they're trying to do here is great. That's all I meant, was to try something different, try to make it more exciting, a little bit different, and see what the result is, then go from there. Really, just so many breaks in the action. Just try and keep everybody entertained, whether it's a good match or bad match or whatever.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I don't think so. In other sports they don't do that, in a baseball or football game, close call, home stadium, they don't show it. In baseball they won't do that either. You know, I think that's not right to try and intimidate lines-people and officials that way. I wouldn't agree with that. But just doing something to get the fans, you know, just entertained, not to get upset.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Well, the wind is just going one way across the court. You're either really against the wind or with the wind.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Well, the wind was going, I don't know, north or south.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: No, baseline to baseline. One side you're serving against the wind, so the toss is going behind your head, the other side it's going way forward. I think either time, both times, I was having problems on both sides. It wasn't just the one side. Didn't probably just serve smart enough.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Well, it was also 4-Love, her serve. I went for a few return winners just to try to get some momentum that way. I missed them. I was going for things. I didn't want to get in long rallies or stuff. Just wanted to see if I could get some winners or some good shots, get some confidence back. You know, it wasn't like I was throwing the towel in. It was just trying to regroup. Her serve, obviously you'd rather be serving Love-4 than serving.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Well, I didn't feel like I played great the other night and didn't feel like I played great today. Many times in the past at tournaments, you play bad, sometimes you get better because hopefully you get it out of your system, you feel lucky to get by. Sometimes you don't. I've got quite a bit of time before my next match. I'm going to hit again today, hit tomorrow, just do what I feel like I need to do to get better.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I feel good. Physically, in terms of hours, this is the least amount of time I've ever spent in the training room this week. Don't feel like anything is bothering me. I feel in good shape. I felt like I played a lot of tennis. My body has held up this summer. That's definitely a positive. Now, the rest of the week I think there's three more matches to go. Just stay confident, get better.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I got broken, what, like four times in a row. That's not very good, for a good server. But, again, you know, I was able to turn it right back around, get up another break. From there, I didn't get broken again. I was able to, you know, maybe just win some points that I wasn't before. But, yeah, I mean, you can't afford to get down early in the third set of a match. I mean, that's really hard to come back from then. I was trying to say that. Luckily I got that break to go up 2-1 again after a long game. From there, I felt a lot more comfortable out there, for sure.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Well, you know, certainly when you're not playing well, you think about things too much. You're maybe a little bit tentative, maybe pull off some shots. When you're playing well, you're not really thinking. You just kind of automatically know what you're going to do with the ball, your weight is going forward, everything's just feeling like you're hitting the center of the racquet every time on the strings. That's a good feeling. The opposite is true when you're not playing well. Today, once it got a little close, I didn't feel like I was stepping in enough and, like I said, pulling off shots. Maybe I'll think about that next time.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Well, yeah, I mean, you feel like you can hit, you know, certain shots. You know it, they just go in. At other times you're scared to try them when you're not playing well. You seem to know where serves are going. You seem to know where your opponent's shots are going. You just hit it back without thinking about it. Sometimes players get in trouble when they think too much, worry too much. A lot of times that's what happens when someone's not playing that well.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Well, sure. I didn't feel like I could do what I wanted to do with the ball. You think, "I'll just get it in now." Things happen. You play your best tennis when you step into ball, hit them, go for it. You know, just with the conditions, just the way the second set went, I didn't feel like I was totally free with all my shots today.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: No. The weather was perfect today. It was pretty much no humidity out there. Nice temperature. Wasn't too cold, too hot. So that part was great. It's just the last few days, the wind has picked up quite a bit out there. I think all the players have talked about it one way or another, semi-struggled with it. That's what you've got to deal with here.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: No. I mean, yeah. It's happened quite a bit. I don't know. The Australian Open final that year. That's a good one.