STATE FARM EVERT CUP

March 12, 1997

Lindsay Davenport

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: You know, I got down. I couldn't hold my serve. I didn't think I had my serve for like eight straight times I served. I was thinking, I'm having an okay time breaking her, just concentrate on winning your serve. At 4-1 I finally did hold my serve. Surprisingly just that little thing gave me a lot of confidence. Getting back to 4-2, I broke her again, was able to hold. It was kind of a matter of keeping a few more balls in maybe. She was getting some balls back that I guarantee you most girls never get back against me. I was a little surprised sometimes.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Well, we play kind of a similar game, but she's definitely much faster. She hits the ball very hard. Her ability also to run down balls as well as to be as aggressive is pretty great. Normally you're kind of one or the other. She did both very, very well.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Yeah. That's pretty remarkable. I think she's so eager, I think she really enjoys these opportunities, especially playing against some of the top players. She really, really likes that. That's great to have. I mean, a lot of girls go out there maybe scared, "I hope I don't get killed." She's out there wanting to win really badly. That's an unbelievable quality to have at a young age.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Mine (laughter). Her serve is a level above most girls, definitely, all girls, when it goes in. She hits hard off both sides and she moves well. She's going to be an excellent player. Consistency takes time. I don't have it a hundred percent of the time. You definitely learn it a lot more when you start playing a little more.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Gosh, I don't know. I felt not too good on it all night. I think it was a little bit more difficult in the night, not that that's an excuse. I was losing the ball a little bit. It definitely hurt me a lot tonight. I don't know. Hopefully I'll figure it out tomorrow.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Well, I think it would have put a bit more pressure on me if it was an earlier round. In quarterfinals, everybody knew she was playing excellent tennis, I knew it was going to be a tough match. I didn't feel much pressure because I knew she had good wins before this. You know she's going to go for broke, I knew that going into it. I knew she was going to go for her serves, go for it if she had the opportunity. When something like that happens, you have to hope, to go for it also and be playing well.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: That was a little weird. She did it for about two points, she won both of them, and she never did it again. I don't know. She should have. It definitely threw me off for that one game. Then not once did she do it again. You'll have to ask her. It probably would have worked. I don't know.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I guess it did. In the past, I have not been a very good tiebreak player. The first two points were pretty tough. I think that really got me going. Then she threw in a lot of errors, so that helps always.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Well, you think -- they're different styles of players. Martina doesn't hit the ball as hard. Martina is much more consistent. She's confident and poised. Venus is very, very poised on the court, but right now she's making some errors that Martina doesn't. Martina has also been playing the Tour full-time for two and a half years or so, so I think that will help Venus, too, when she plays a little more.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Especially when I started losing a lot of games in a row. It might have. The ball is coming back hard. It's tougher to take pace off the ball than to hit right back through it. Neither one of us kind of mixed up our game at all. Probably would have been smart to throw in a few slices, a few high balls, come in maybe a little bit more.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I was playing the same time. I saw about the last four points, so it didn't help.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Old? You know, it was weird. I did feel a bit more experienced. I kind of had that in my head a little bit. Maybe it doesn't matter that much, but I knew she only had the one win before this. It was like, "You've got to stay with her." I don't know anything about her. Maybe she will get nervous. I don't know if that so much happened. It kept me in the match a little bit. "Let's see if we can fight this game off." It's not going to be like that for much longer if she keeps playing.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I guess so. I'm 20. With all these players, Kournikova, Hingis and Williams, everybody is going to be old compared to them.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: She feels really old.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: We've had some tough matches in the past, definitely. She's a very crafty player. She comes up with a lot of balls, wins a lot of matches with her heart, mixing her game up. It's going to be tough. We know each other's games well. Hopefully I'm rested by Friday and ready to play.