TMS - THE ERICSSON OPEN

March 28, 2001

Lindsay Davenport

Q. What happened?

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: The other day in my match I kind of landed on my knee funny, finished the match. It was almost over at that point. And it had bothered me that night and yesterday. So I went and got an MRI. They said I had a bone bruise, which basically means that it is very painful, probably can't get worse, unless you start compensating and it was just hurting a lot out there. Just every time I put a lot of pressure on it I could feel it, and I just didn't want to tear anything worse. You can't win when you are, you know, at this level at 100%. Especially myself that I need every ounce of movement I can get out of my body, so being lame in the legs doesn't help.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I didn't think when I woke up this morning I was going to play at all. I practiced this morning, I was actually a little bit surprised. Decided to play, I talked to the doctor many times today. The thing was that you could get worse if you overcompensate. I wasn't -- it was hurting quite a bit so it was kind of -- I had no winning scenario there.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I don't know what it is. I think -- mine was a freak thing -- I hit a forehand; landed on my foot wrong, kind of went over, and, you know, injured my knee so much. I don't know. I mean, I think in all sports you get a lot of injuries. This is also the end of a number of weeks in a row for a lot of players, a lot of matches in Indian Wells, here. I started in Scottsdale the week before. A lot of times it just wears on you, just hard courts in general.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: My right.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: The doctor said that not a lot of taping does anything good for a bone, but what they really tried to do was unload the ligaments and stuff around the knee so I wouldn't hopefully hurt one of those when I was, you know, maybe compensating.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I don't know. The doctor says it takes anywhere from 7 to 14 days for it to go away. I think actually clay courts has been a lot easier on my knee, not as much pounding, so I am hoping that it is the 7 days, you know, hopefully -- my next scheduled tournament is Charleston in 2 1/2 weeks. I really have no idea at this point how it will respond. Like I said I hope it is lower end of those days to heal, and the good thing, like he said, I didn't do anything major, just a very painful injury to have.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: It hasn't, I don't think, affected the other players. I think it's cast a very negative shadow over women's tennis when we are doing, you know a lot of positive stories and doing quite well. But I think that they -- just kind of turned it into a circus act whether it is, I don't know, Richard seems to be the one that causes all this commotion and I don't know if he does it on purpose or not. But it just seems like he likes to say things to get a rise out of people and the press. I really don't think that the girls have much to do with it. I think it is just that he talks and then they have to deal with the consequences which is a little unfortunate.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Yeah, yeah, I mean, what can you say. Nobody knows what the deal is. I am from California; played Indian Wells a lot of times, I'd be surprised if some people yelled what he said they yelled. But, you know, who can say anything, just kind of go, well shall got to move on.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: That was a good precursor, huh? Nobody knows. I don't know if -- obviously the girls base their decisions around what he says and he definitely leads them. But I don't know if they would go so far in their matches. Like I said, it is more the other stuff that kind of bothers me that he just creates. And I think like I said, I think they are pretty innocent in the whole scenario.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Well I think it was a little bit overdone, like Serena said she was kind of the innocent one in it all, it got taken out on her. But I think that the fans were reacting to -- obviously there was a lot of speculation about how the match will go. Of all things, it didn't happen. I think that to the fans, after all this talk had been written about how the match was going to play out, were just reacting to what they thought was, you know, it being fixed. I mean, Serena wasn't the one that pulled out. Serena gave it a great effort the whole week and a half and I mean, it must have been very hard to play in those circumstances.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I haven't actually noticed, no. I think that, you know, in some way or other they have always drawn a lot of kind of controversy or a lot of speculation around them in the past. I think that it is just the way it goes. I mean, I don't know about the other players actually, you know, don't want to say anything because I haven't talked to too many here.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: It is hard to say. No, I have never seen it, but no, I have never been a part of it. From the other players I don't know, like I was more towards the crowd. I didn't think that the crowd would yell that kind of stuff. But, no, I don't see it. I think if you asked the majority of players they would say no, but we don't have a huge majority of African American players maybe they feel like stuff is taken out on them. I don't know. But I don't see it.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I have no idea. I mean, never know how careers play out. She has improved a lot since I played her almost exactly a year ago at Indian Wells and she has improved a ton in a year. But you have got to keep improving off that. But she, you know, in this day and age it is about hitting the ball hard. She moves well and that is what it takes mentally to get over the hump and keep going fart in Grand Slams is what she really needs. Only time will tell.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I think she is more consistent. She used to make a lot or errors and I think she is a little more patient; hits a few more balls crosscourt than what she was doing last year. If she keeps working on her serve making it a bigger weapon because she is a tall girl, I am sure she will do really well but it is impossible to say what will happen with Slams.