CHASE CHAMPIONSHIPS OF THE COREL WTA TOUR

November 21, 1996

Lindsay Davenport

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I thought I served really well in the beginning. The first two games that I served really, really, really long, I think that's why I held. I was going to go for it. And I think towards the end of the second set I started missing some more first serves, but overall I thought I was pretty happy with the way I served. It's never going to be a high percentage, because I go for it a lot. But that's what I'm going to do.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I thought it was almost an ace, she got to it and hit an unbelievable return off it. And I was just totally on my back feet waiting for it. She had a drop shot, and I was not even looking for it. Even when I saw it I probably could have ran, I don't know what happened, but it definitely shocked me.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: It just went by so fast, I'm not sure.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: No, she's No. 1 in the world. And that's one of her strengths is her speed. Not too many of the players -- every tournament there's an injury, but we all expect her to play a hundred percent and all the times she does, and she moves just fine. And she serves just fine. And we all expect that.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: No, we've played four times this year, and each time it's been pretty close. I've had my chances in three of the four, and came through in one of the four, so that's probably not a very good percentage. But today every big point I played terrible, to be honest. She played very well. She hit three winners in a row at 6-3 in the breaker. But every other big point to then I made an error before anything could happen. So it's my fault and I just have to learn how to play those points a lot better, play like she did.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: If you have a bad patch, and you letup and get balls in, she's going to hit a winner. And then maybe you try a little too hard. And I still was trying to go for my shots, which is the right thing to do, but like I said every time it became a big point they didn't work today.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: 13-11? I would have to say on a pro tour, yes. I think once in the juniors a played like 14-12. But I'd say yes. It was one of the longest games I ever played in the first game on my serve. It was long.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Well, I thought I had my chances tonight. I've gotten close before and I've been disappointed and it happened again. So like I said, it was the fourth time this year we've had a good match. And I do fairly well against her, I mean I kind of like the match up. Obviously you're never going to love playing Steffi Graf, but I don't mind it. But I think it's obvious there's a lot of things I'm going to do differently before I win those.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Hopefully because it's the end of the year I'll get over it really fast. But I'm disgusted in the way that I played the big points and when I got ahead. So I have to learn next time that happens not just against Steffi but against anybody, you know, you have to keep playing.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I don't know. I think if a hard hitter like myself or Mary Pierce or Monica cannot let her be offensive, then she's not the same player, as anyone who's an offensive player. I don't think she likes it when someone hits the ball hard and she has to maybe step back. So I think that's why maybe the matchup is okay.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Yeah, that was pathetic, I was supposed to. Her second serve she hit pretty well tonight. A couple of times in the past I'm able to come in some more. But I didn't come in nearly enough and the times that I've beaten her -- the one time I've beaten her in the past I came in a lot more. I don't know why. I haven't been playing great tennis into this match and I wasn't really confident doing that, I think.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: No, my gameplan was to come in on the backhand and play the forehand. She loves hitting forehands from the backhand corner. She loves hitting forehands but I think she likes them less in the forehand corner and you can step in and hit it to the backhand. But that was hopefully the gameplan. But she hit the forehand very well tonight, not too many errors off it.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Well, a ton of things, I think. Tonight I think it just showed, like I said I don't think I played my best, I don't think she played her best, either. Even if I'm not I still have to play the bigger points well. And just to keep doing the things I've been doing, coming in, more consistency, moving better, but maybe just fighting a little harder when I'm up.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Yeah, it's been a great year, but the last four tournaments I've played pretty bad. But if anything I had a great year, not a great end of the year. Hopefully that fires me up to start the year well. It's been unbelievable year. Winning the gold medal in Atlanta has been my dream come true and I'll always have that. And if nothing else happens in my career, I'll always be proud of that. I played pretty consistently all year, I had maybe three losses to top players, which is good for me. And hopefully next year I can be a consistent performer and do better in gland slams.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I think so. I think I took the one big step this year, going from a couple of -- there's a couple of tiers. I think I jumped a tier in my level of play into a different group of players. But I still have a lot to work on, which is actually kind of exciting, I can still improve on some stuff. And next year I hope to keep going up on what I did this year and keep improving on it. Like I said, I'm excited to start the year off well, because I didn't end it great.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I don't know, I think this year I've played the most tennis by far than I've ever played in in any year. I played 17 tournaments, plus the Olympics, the Fed Cup and a lot more doubles matches. I think it took its toll on me at the end. I'm happy I did it all. In addition to playing some of my best tennis of my career this year, I also toughed out a lot of times I didn't want to play but I stuck it out. Played injured sometimes, stuck it out, kept my mouth shut and tried to deal with it and become tough, and I think I've become a lot tougher.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I think so, I like playing doubles. I'm still in doubles here, so the week's not over yet.