STATE FARM EVERT CUP

March 15, 1997

Lindsay Davenport

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Didn't feel like that. I mean, even though the score was pretty easy, she hit so many winners against me. I was feeling like, you know, I didn't want to hit it to that forehand. I tried to play maybe a smart match and keep the balls to the backhand, make her beat me with her backhand. It worked really well today.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Kind of. Same sort of stuff. I mean, almost every forehand this girl's got; she was either hitting a winner or an error. Sometimes with Steffi I can maybe get a couple of her forehands back. I didn't feel like with this girl I was going to be able to get her forehand back. She plays the same way Steffi does. I think against Steffi or Irina, you know, you got to get the second serve to the backhand. You don't want them teeing off and hitting forehands to start the point off. That's what I was trying to do.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Before the match, I was talking to my coach about it. He said, "You really want to attack her serve. You want to make her think about her serve." She threw in a lot of double-faults maybe because she was expecting me to attack, knew I was going to try to take advantage of it. I did. I was able to get a lot of serves back, her first serves, attack her second serve. I think she only held serve once. I think I did that strategy well (laughter). Just kidding.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: It was. From the first match I played at night, I thought I was hitting the ball well. The match against Venus really helped me for my next two matches. It was such a tough match. I had to fight my way back in the third set. It was so competitive. I think it really got me sharp for my last two matches. Each match I felt like I was hitting the ball really well. It continued for the whole ten days of the tournament.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Yeah. You know, it's always great when the crowd is behind you. I won in LA last year. I felt their support was behind me, and here in Indian Wells. I really felt even my group of friends and family were for me, but other people in the crowd were for me, too. That always helps. I've always had a great time playing here. I've always done well here. This is the tournament when I first turned pro four years ago. It's like my four-year anniversary. It's pretty special to win my first tier one here.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Yeah. I think, you know, obviously the injury to Steffi that's going to keep her off for a while. Hopefully everyone hopes that Monica will come back soon. I think there is a chance at the top. Hingis has taken excellent advantage of that, played her way to the top. You know, I hope I can do that. For me it's important to be confident and just feel good about myself when I go out on the court. I can't start worrying about the other players. I've learned that I really need to feel good to play well. There definitely is a little crack at the top of women's tennis. Not everyone's playing great tennis right now. Maybe if I can keep going, who knows.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Yeah. I think I need to want to play, feel fresh to play. I have the last couple weeks. I've been pretty eager to play well, especially coming here I wanted to do well in front of kind of my hometown fans and my family. What I really meant to say is you can't worry how other people are doing. With my type of game, if I'm playing well, at my best, I'm going to have success no matter what's going on with everyone else.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Yes (laughter).

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Yeah. I think it's definitely been a goal of mine for about 13 or 14 months now. I feel much better in the last couple months, even better. After Australia, Robert and I worked really hard on the off court, didn't spend so many on court practicing. I feel so much better. I feel better playing. I'm not as -- I'm fresher, I should say. I'm eager to play. I feel really strong when I'm out there. I didn't get tired the other night. I was able to recover and play two really great matches. I think that's been a key also.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: It turned out to be huge. At 4-1 down in the third, I still felt fine to come back and still play, where a lot of other times I would have been like, "Oh, I'm tired," maybe have gone for some dumb shots, not have gone to some balls. I think that definitely pulled me through that match.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: It's been a lot of maybe running on court, some sprints, some weight training, throwing a medicine ball.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Actually I play tennis sometimes with the owner of the company. He was telling me, I'm like, "You don't own that lemonade." He's like, "Yes, I do." I'm like, you got to give me some." I've been having like two a day, a lot of calories. But it's great stuff. I told him, I said when I was playing well through the week, "This is the secret. Maybe this is what I need at every tournament."

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: You always think you've maybe gotten it down, then you go through another tough time and you learn, "This is another lesson." The times change so quickly on the Tour, you can be doing really well, then you don't do well, for whatever reason. You have to learn how to pick yourself back up, how to play, how to win when you're not playing well, how to handle losing. I think I've gone through a lot. I think I've learned a lot. Unfortunately, I still think there's a lot more I have to go through to really know it all.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I think for me I've learned that that's probably the key to how I'm going to play better, is how I carry myself and how positively I'm thinking. This week, you know, like I said, I really wanted to do well. I love the conditions out here. I felt really good, I felt positive. I know that's what it takes for me to play well, so hopefully I can be like that always, but I know I can't.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Just a matter of time before she becomes No. 1, whether it's this month or in two months. I think she turned a good year into a fabulous year last year in September. Since September, she's only had a couple losses to the same two players. She really became one of the most consistent performers, confident winners on the Tour. You watch her play now and she's totally different than she was eight months ago. I think that's remarkable.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I think now she has the confidence, the confidence in her shots, in her shot-making ability. She's so fast. I think people maybe underestimate her speed. You can't really tell how quick she is. She moves so smoothly. She gets to every ball. She puts the ball exactly where she wants to put it. You can't really fight that.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Against Martina?

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: 2 and 2.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I think last year after the Olympics, everyone expected me to win the US Open or do really well at the US Open. I felt a lot of pressure then. I think this time I'm just going to enjoy this and not worry about what other people say, go into the Lipton with the same attitude and go for it. I'm going to go for my shots. I'm a high-risk player. I'm going to make some errors. I hope I can, you know, keep moving up, keep it going. I don't want to worry bit. I think I learned some lessons last time I was doing well. Hopefully, I can do a it a little differently.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: It has. I always have this discussion with my coach. He always gets on me for not going into net. I don't do it nearly, nearly enough. I think I do it less now actually. With the moving, I feel pretty confident on the baseline. I was trying to explain, I've been hitting my groundstrokes pretty well and I want to be at the back court. It's something I can do. I don't do it often. I'm still learning how to do it. I'm definitely covering the net better, even in doubles. I feel much more confident up there. I think I need to do that more in my singles.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I think it goes in stages. I think you have a good time. Sometimes if you're in a great location, you have a great time. I think that's one of the things that you need to play good. I'm not going to play well if I'm at the courts practicing, go back to my room, go back to the courts practice, go back to my room, go play. I need to go do things, whether it's watching some friends play, going to the movies, doing whatever. But, you know, I've had a lot of fun the last couple weeks. Maybe I didn't so much last fall. If you try and make it fun, you're going to play better. That's what I'm going to try to do from now on.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I think so. I think last fall I felt a lot of pressure to do well and to win. I wasn't enjoying it. Looking back, I don't think I was ready to maybe go to Australia, to do that long trip after such a long year for me. I wasn't exactly used to playing that much, maybe playing more matches than I had in the past because I was winning a little bit more. But like I said, I'm going to take this win pretty excitedly, go happy to the Lipton, don't put any pressure. Did great here. I don't have anything to lose by losing early or doing well there. This is pretty exciting for me.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I think it's difficult this year. From here, I play Lipton, Hilton Head, Amelia Island. Last year I played Lipton and went home. I'm definitely going to play more to go with the ranking system, support the Tour. Right now it's a learning experience. No one knows how the ranking system is going to turn out and affect the players. I'm going to play right now as long as I'm healthy and feeling good. Hopefully in six to eight months we'll know if this is the right system.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I've actually changed my mind on this a lot. I used to always say the US Open because it was in the United States. I've got to change that one because I've never really done that well there (laughter). Well, I'm going to actually say the French Open because I think that's by far the toughest one for me to win. I don't enjoy the clay. I think if I were to win the French Open, that would be the most amazing thing in the world. I'm going to go for the toughest one.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I'm going to wait till after the doubles. Maybe now, I don't know. I've got the doubles. That's also exciting. Thank you.