AUSTRALIAN OPEN

January 23, 2001

Lindsay Davenport

MODERATOR: Questions for Lindsay.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Yeah. I mean, it's very hard to get a rhythm from the baseline against her. She hits the ball very hard, very flat. We have some rallies and then we'd go through a number of points where there were just errors. Being able to serve well, always hold my serve, even though I was in trouble a lot of times, able to pull it out with a few serves, that saved me. My groundstrokes, I didn't feel like I could get any rhythm, didn't know what to expect.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Well, I think she plays one style of game. You know, you don't necessarily need variety to win. I can't do much more than hit the ball hard. But I think that she doesn't have a huge margin of error on her shots. If she's on, it's great. If she's just a little bit off, sometimes you get a few easy points. Like I said, as an opponent, you never know what to expect out there. You know, one service game she's hitting winners, the next point I get two errors to hold. A lot of times at the top of the game, they're always pretty consistent with their shots, always making you fight for the points. Sometimes with her you're given a lot of free points with the match.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I mean, the last two opponents I've played I think are great young girls, hit the ball hard. I've been able to pretty much dominate both matches. I mean, they've been close, but I've been able to pull ahead when I've needed to. I play another similar type of player, hits the ball hard, in Jennifer. I like those match-ups when I'm playing well. Just have to continue it. I saw Jennifer play today. She fought really hard, played really well to pull that match out. Hopefully it will be another good match.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I did watch most of the match just sitting in my hotel room today. It really felt like Monica let her off the hook. Jennifer did play great. At a set and 4-2, that's probably when Monica normally puts opponents away. Today she seemed like she was lacking those few points. It would have been a different opponent on Thursday. But Jennifer was hitting the ball, I thought, with a little bit more authority than maybe the last few months. I think last year when I played her here, she played great. I think last year in the middle of the year, she wasn't really going for her shots as much. Today I thought she did that a little bit better. Her serve today was great. She didn't have a lot of double-faults. A lot of times, that's her Achille's heel.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: It goes in streaks. I mean, I haven't been called yet the whole year; suddenly tonight I've been called. They seem to be foot-fault happy here because I've seen in it a lot of matches. I'll have to work on that. But like I said, it's the first match that it happened. Fortunately, the few times it did happen, she hit like great returns or I missed the serve, so it didn't hurt me tonight.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: It was funny. I was watching Mauresmo, they called two on her. She was not foot-faulting. First thing I thought tonight was, "Oh, no." Yeah, you just scoot back a little bit. It's no big deal. Sometimes you forget.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Yeah. I mean, every match has been better and better. I've beaten better opponents as I've gone on. I've always thought that I play better once I feel more comfortable in a tournament and had some time to get used to the conditions. Coming in from Sydney Saturday night, up against a really tough opponent Monday, just felt overwhelming, just not really used to what was going on here yet. Since then, my game has slowly been getting better and better. It's great to feel like that at Grand Slams where you can fight through a few tough matches and still hang in there, give yourself an opportunity to play well at the end.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Well, I think, you know, at first I was like, "Oh, I didn't know it was such a big issue." You know, people here seem to be really into that. You know, as I try and look at it, it's my results. I've never fooled anyone like I'm the fastest person or the skinniest person or anything like that. I mean, I know my game, I work hard at it, I think, do the best I can with what I was given. You know, that's not good enough for some people. You know, I can only do what's best for me.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I see it just as society in general. You know, whenever you're at the top of anything, whatever profession it is, you're always going to be tried to be knocked down a little bit. If this is what people try to knock me down with, I can take it. I'm the one out here in the semifinals, a couple Grand Slam titles, winning tournaments. You know, it's up to the people who write it, I guess.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: No. It would have been a huge disappointment to have lost in the quarterfinals of any Grand Slam. Knowing that going in, I mean, maybe I didn't look so happy winning, it was more like, "Oh, okay, let's go on to the next round." It's a great feeling to have, to always be expected to win, not want to lose, especially in Grand Slams. You know, for me it's business as usual. I mean, I'm here to win it. It's great I'm in the semifinals, but that's where I thought I should be.