THE LIPTON CHAMPIONSHIPS

March 17, 1994

Lindsay Davenport

Q. What happened in the first set, what was the deal?

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Yeah, she started off, you know, pretty well, but I was missing a lot of balls and not really sure of myself. When you start off bad, then it's kind of hard to have confidence in the shots you want to hit, but it took a little while to make - hit some balls in the court to get enough courage. I was just missing and serving atrociously; it didn't help.

Q. Lindsay, you had two set points there in that second set. Can you talk about what happened there?

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Yeah, the one -- the one game which she was serving, I was just trying to, you know, make or play a lot of balls because she started missing a lot. On the set point, first one, I think she hit a winner maybe -- I mean, I don't quite remember.

Q. She did.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Yeah. And second one, I missed a forehand long, but it's kind of hard. You have to keep the ball deep on her, you don't want to hit short and let her attack. I was trying to hit deep and it went long, not too far, I don't think.

Q. Lindsay, did you feel on the big points you played your game, you didn't get too conservative?

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I was trying to do a little of both, you know, I mean, you can't go out there and just go for a winner on the first ball then miss it, you know, you don't want to do that, you want to wait for your opportunity. That's the kind of game I've been trying to play a little more, waiting for the better shot to go for it. That's what I was ideally hoping to do, get a shot I wanted.

Q. What did you think about today, the first time?

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: You know, I thought, you know, going into this match I could do it and I could, you know, was going to play well and could really stretch her and, you know, I proved a little of that today, you know, in the second set. It could have been mine either way, you know; I knew I could stay out there and play with her. It was just a matter of believing and playing well.

Q. Were you thinking later what might have been different in this match if you had not come out so tight in the first set?

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Not really. I think the first set was pretty much history and I forgot about it, you know, I wasn't hitting too many balls in the court and -- no, the first set, you know, I was concentrating more on the second set and the third set, but it never got there, you know.

Q. Were you looking ahead at all?

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: No, I was definitely not looking ahead because, you know, she's the Number 1 player in the world, you know, you just want to -- I wanted to break her to win the set so I could start off serving, and things didn't work that way and, you know, I hit a pretty bad doublefault at 5-4 in the second set. That's the way it goes, so.

Q. Did you come out with a feeling she's beatable?

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I really felt that I could do it. I actually really believed -- I thought I played the kind of game that could give her trouble and, you know, I almost won a set and someone hasn't done that in a while; I mean, I could be happy about that, but I really, really wanted to win that. I don't know, it will take a while to let it sink in.

Q. Lindsay, I know you like school a lot, but are you thinking now, I can't wait to get out of school so this can be a full-time job for me; I can devote myself entirely to it?

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: No, no, I mean I only have a couple of months left, you know, these are supposed to be the most fun, the last couple of months of your senior year, so, you know, maybe I'll go home for a couple of days before Houston and try to get ready again. No, definitely -- I mean, yeah, it's going to be nice. I'm going to really enjoy these couple of months.

Q. When you do get out of school, you will be able to devote yourself full-time to tennis?

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Yes.

Q. Do you plan to play in the French Open? If so, how do you feel you'll do?

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Definitely play the French Open. It will be interesting, you know. I won a tournament. I played last year, but that's not really my best surface. It's going to be tough to play there on the slow red clay, but I'm going to try.

Q. What is your schedule after Houston, go to Hilton Head --

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Hilton Head and then most likely Amelia Island then home for, like, I think it is about five weeks. And then I play Lucerne, the French.

Q. You're not going to Rome?

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: No, staying home until the week before prom.

Q. Is the prom before?

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Yeah, the prom is the week before Lucerne, so then graduation is a couple of days before Wimbledon. I get to do both, so I'm happy.

Q. You got your date for the prom yet?

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Everybody asks that. It's still a couple of weeks away, couple of months, so we'll see. I have to get back home first.

Q. You got a dress, that's more important.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Yeah, really.

Q. Shoes, heels.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Got to get all that.

Q. Considering the way Steffi is playing, I mean, is it any kind of consolation or victory at all just to come so close to taking a set off her; is that like a badge of honor now?

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: She's obviously been playing very well, you know, it's pretty disappointing because I had that second set and I let it slip away. It is not a very big consolation because I really thought I could do something out there, maybe next time.

Q. Lindsay, what is it about her that makes her so good?

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Well, I mean she's unbelievably fast. The good balls you hit you're not assured the point is over because she can still get it back and make you hit another ball, and I think when we have a netter ball that sometimes we tend -- I was maybe a little shocked in her serves, it is so hard to break her. She has so many easy service games. That's where you really have to concentrate, make her work a little harder on that; when you don't, she gets on a role. Obviously, the forehand, the slice stays low. I mean everything is pretty awesome about her, but --

Q. This Tour has been looking -- since Monica took her absence and Martina is retiring at the end of the year, the Tour is looking for new young stars; you seem to be it because you've come the farthest the fastest. Are you comfortable carrying that burden?

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I think that there are a lot of, you know, young girls coming up that are playing well and, hopefully, more will get pushed into the Top 10 and Top 20. Right now I'm just playing good tennis, and, unfortunately, Monica and Jennifer are out, so when -- in a time when not too many people are playing well, I am playing well, I guess, I am in that situation, but, hopefully, some more will come along and generate more.

Q. Do you feel comfortable being spotlighted?

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: It's all right; it doesn't bother me. It is a little unnerving sometimes, but it's fine. It doesn't bother me right now.

Q. Have you set yourself some goals by the end of this year or just going along?

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Yeah, I mean, it's kind of hard because, you know, I'm playing really well right now and I'd like to keep on moving up while I'm on a roll and being confident and stuff, and hopefully, maybe, you know, at the end of the senior -- tournament year I will be in the Top 10. My main goal is to do well in the Grand Slams and the bigger tournaments and maybe get, you know, semi-finals of Paris or Wimbledon. But for the whole year, the U.S. Open is my main goal because that's a tournament I'd like to win and do the best at. So everything I do is probably geared towards this.

Q. The first set today went by so fast. Was there a point where you felt things really going too fast for you?

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Yeah, I was just missing so many easy balls or just balls, and she was hitting winners in the beginning that I just, you know, it is hard to get your confidence to hit the shots you want to hit when you haven't won too many points in one set. So, you know, in the second set it was real important for me to break her that first game, you know, and then I felt a lot better, more sure of myself a little bit more.

Q. Lindsay, are you pretty confident that if you play well you can beat her from the backcourt, or the next time you play do you think --

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Yeah, you know, I felt today was much different than Australia, you know. I was able to rally with her in the second set, you know, and stay with her. I wanted to come in a little more and make her pass a little more, and maybe I didn't do that enough. Maybe I was a little too -- stayed back a little too much, but, you know, it's hard to try and do everything against her.

Q. Lindsay, there was a communication yesterday that Monica has now become a U.S. Citizen.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Oh really?

Q. So when she comes back she may be your partner for the Federation Cup? Have you been talking about it?

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: About Federation Cup?

Q. Yes, that you could be --

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I didn't know she had become a citizen. I wasn't aware of that. I don't know what that means; I guess she can play --

Q. She's an American like you now.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Oh, she can -- oh, I mean I knew that, that she can still play Federation Cup?

Q. Yes.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Oh, I wasn't aware of that, so I haven't even thought about that. It would be nice.

Q. When you went through all of Steffi's various strong points and strokes you can hit, you failed to mention the one that surprised everybody, maybe you too, the drop shot at this baseline, did that come as a total shock?

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: She only hit one.

Q. She had one and --

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: The other one, she hit it at a very gutsy time, 5-4, Deuce, that's why she wins; she makes them and she doesn't, you know. I was completely -- I wasn't really expecting it, especially at that time, that why she's where she's at. She can come up with those shots at the right time.

Q. What did you and Lynn Rawley discuss before the match, what was your strategy coming in?

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Well, just, you know, I had to, you know, play my game and play well, we knew that obviously. Just, I wasn't too scared of the forehand or backhand, so, you know, really for me it was to play my game and to move well and to get into position to as many balls as I could.

Q. When you were down 6-1 in the tiebreaker, did you recall at all that --

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I actually did think about Brenda, is that what you --

Q. Yes.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I actually did think about that for like two seconds. I'm like, this isn't comparable. I did think about it for a couple of seconds, well, maybe, but no, it didn't happen. I think that would have been too much of a shock.

Q. What's the date of the high school graduation?

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: It is June 16th or -- yeah, Thursday. So I leave Friday, get in Saturday, hopefully they will give me a Tuesday start.

Q. You will be able to graduation?

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Yeah, I'm going to go. I mean, it happens once, you know, I really had a lot of fun there, they are a big reason for my success and I want to do that.

Q. Who do you travel with now?

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Well, right now a guy named Marcel Freeman is traveling with me for the next couple of weeks, hopefully it will work out longer. Lynn Rolley with the USTA. I have a coach at home Robert Van 't Hof. I have a couple of people on my team.

Q. Marcel work with Van 't Hof?

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Yeah, I mean they all talk, Lynn is kind of on top, you know, she sees everything and I travel with Marcel and work with Robert at home, everyone talks, you know, it is a team, I guess.

Q. Have you discussed with Lynn her coming with you on a full-time basis after you graduate?

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: We, I think we have a system where she's at all the Grand Slams. I think with her job, you know, she's director of coaching and she just moved down here. I think it is impossible. She has a lot of other responsibilities. I think it is, for me, I like a variety, I don't know, I could go pretty crazy with just one person, we'll see. But she's there at all the big tournaments and I talk to her almost every day, so.

Q. Lindsay, you may know that the WTA last week, week and a half ago decided to study the question of increasing the minimum age to come on Tour?

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Right.

Q. What are your feelings and your thoughts about the age alone and other factors?

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I have a pretty strong opinion, I think you should be older. I think probably 16, maybe 15, but I think 14 is just way too young, you know, you can't play -- you've already played six years and you're only 20, you know, I think you're not ready to do that. I waited until I was 16 about, I was 16 almost 17 and, you know, I'm so much more independent, I can do things on my own. At 14 you can't really do stuff on your own, and I think it should be a little older, but unfortunately, I don't think they'll listen to me.

Q. Why not?

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Well, I don't know, maybe, I don't know. I just think that if you're pushing them out there at 14, I mean, some pretty good examples, it just hasn't worked out.

Q. You think that agents are a big part of the problem, that they're anxious to push those kids --

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I don't think it is the agents, it is the companies and the kids, they are offering them so much money, you know, it is hard for a family that doesn't have a lot of money to say no to all this money and attention and publicity. I think it's kind of everybody's fault, not just one party's.

Q. How important has the Lipton become to the players, do you think?

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Oh, it's especially, you know, this week has been absolutely fantastic, the site is great, the weather has been good finally for the tournament, and besides the Grand Slams -- and it's right there with the championships, it's a pretty high tournament. Players think of it almost to the -- top players are here, it's good money, especially now since the site is so nice, I think it is going to become even bigger.

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