WIMBLEDON

June 28, 2001

Lindsay Davenport

MODERATOR: Ladies and Gentlemen, Lindsay Davenport.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Did I look rusty?

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Thank you.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I think so. I think I'm getting back into the flow of playing matches, and feel very good out there. I thought she played great, especially in the first few games. I don't think I even returned one ball for a long time. But I felt very good out there. I think in grass court matches, you don't get as much rhythm as you do in a hard court match or even a clay court match. You just kind of have to go with the flow of grass court tennis. Some games are really fast, some games are a little bit longer. It's just important to keep concentrating on your serve.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Well, I hope so. It hasn't hurt me yet (laughter). You know, I'm really feeling good out there, very excited to be playing, very focused, and have been very calm so far. Hope to keep that going.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I think it's very difficult. I think it's a very difficult lifestyle, especially for the girls. They start a lot earlier than the guys do. They a lot of times have success at a much earlier age. For myself, I didn't have my family travel with me. There's definitely parts where you get lonely and get bored. You've got to try and see the light at the end of the tunnel on what you're trying to accomplish, and that's very hard when you're 17 or 18, to try to see the big picture, try and look at yourself as being part of a very important career when everyone else in the world, that's just not normal. Normally you're in your mid 20s. So I think it's very difficult. I think a lot of times the press is a little bit hard to rip on some of the girls, forgetting how young they are. Martina Hingis was I think 18 when she had the problem in Paris. That's pretty young, dealing with some heavy issues. I think you just have to be understanding sometimes of the ages these girls really are.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: You have to. You have to grow up the first few months out there. I think it's very important as a player you don't have somebody doing everything for you. You have to try to figure things out a little bit on your own, especially in the beginning. You have to grow up. I mean, you're not going to make it if you don't.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Well, like, you know, I look back on my career and think that, you know, I started playing when I was 16. My parents had a lot of problems starting about the next year when I was 17. For many years I felt like, "Maybe if I had been home, I could have helped out with a lot of family problems." I felt a lot of guilt over that. Now I look back and think, "That's ridiculous. Everyone has to work on things on their own." Sometimes I wish I waited just a little bit longer to turn pro. I was 16. But, again, what was I going to do? I wasn't going to wait two years for college. You have to make that step, and I did. You know, I had success at I think 17, got in the Top 10. It's tough to deal with sometimes.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I tend to look at it that in women's tennis, that would be pretty difficult. I couldn't imagine starting at 22. I mean, I'm 25 and feel like my career is going towards the latter stages. I think that would be very tough. But I'm sure it could be done. I think also college tennis is a very American thing. I think Europeans, that doesn't really enter their mind if they want to be a pro player. Pretty much just the American players that have to worry about that.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Not right now, no.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Yeah. Right now I'm looking at the end of this year to hopefully have three more years - 28 and go from there. You never know. I don't want to be caught saying that. I would be surprised if I was playing at 30.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: It's exciting (laughter). It's exciting.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: No. I mean, you love playing tennis and you love playing matches, but everything else - always being gone, coming in here after every match (laughter). It's not so much playing tennis; it's maybe just the other things that go with it: little injuries all the time. I mean, it just wears on you. You have to look at parts of your life in different stages, and you've got to move on after tennis I think when you hang it up.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Probably not. I mean, when you're 17, you don't think about much. You just love playing, you're really excited. You know, that would be 13 years. That's a long time to do it. You know, I would like to move on and do other things. I'd like to have kids at a young age. I don't want to be at an older age having them, trying to enjoy them. But, you know, you're dealt different hands as the years go on. That's my plan for right now.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I think it was one of the coolest things, how she just left the game when she felt she wanted to. I'm sure she had been going through it in her mind. Wins Paris, finals here, had enough and stopped. I was very surprised to see her still traveling like 25 weeks a year. I would have said you never would have seen Steffi again. Again, I mean, she fell in love, and this is what she wants to do. But I think it's great. I don't think you'll be seeing her trying to make a comeback anytime soon. I think she looks very happy. It's great to see such a great player has been able to move on.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: No. I never see her around. I see her on TV, see her in the box. You never see her. She doesn't come in the locker room at all.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Normal sports, you don't start at 15, 16. It's a lot of wear and tear and a lot of times -- men and women are so different. Men play till their 40s in half the sports. Women, you very rarely see that, especially in tennis. Steffi was I think in her late 20s, Sabatini in her mid 20s. People might laugh and say, "You're only 25, 26." They definitely have not gone through stuff at 14, 15 that the women's tennis players do. Who knows if you see it turning that way. In men's tennis, a lot of times the career span is 21 through 35. It's not the same for the female aspect of it, I don't think.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: It definitely makes it more frustrating. Again, it almost makes you appreciate it more. You don't have that many years to play, and play at a high level. You know, that's the other thing. After you've been 1 in the world, who wants to be out here at 30 ranked 21 in the world, getting by? I certainly don't. I don't know about other players. I would like to give it my all, get healthy, try and play hard for a couple more years. Injuries make life a little bit more difficult, make it a little bit more disappointing. I'm a lot more excited playing here this year than probably in past years because I missed a Slam, missed a few months. At least I still feel eager when I come back.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: You know, I thought the grass would give me a better shot to win some matches than coming back on the clay. I'm surprised at how well I played last week. I don't feel like I played as well as I did in Eastbourne as I have here. The conditions have been a little rough with the wind. Last week I felt so great out there, felt like I was hitting winners all over the place. It felt like I played better today than the other day. You know, you have to keep getting better. You never know what to expect. Three months was my longest. I certainly didn't know what to expect. I was really nervous the first match I came back. You don't want to lose.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I was surprised, I would have to say. I went about a month without hitting a ball. That's the longest I have gone. Normally I hit even on time off. I was on the court, off the court. I think the match I played in the second round in Eastbourne against Farina, played a bad first set at 6-3, was expecting that. But I was able to turn it around. I was able to stay positive and got my game going. I think I was pretty realistic with myself that you can't be so hard on yourself. If you're not so good when you come back, things will change. Maybe the grass won't go well, but then you have the hard court summer tournaments. You have to stay positive.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I don't want to comment on what other players do. I certainly wouldn't put myself through that. I think if you're used to success and you want to be a dominant player, I don't think you want to be on the end of not winning back-to-back matches. Like I said, everybody's different. Men's tennis again is a little different than women's tennis. I don't know. I don't see that happening. Who knows.