STATE FARM EVERT CUP

March 10, 1998

Lindsay Davenport

Q. Not too bad when you get Patrick Rafter for a warm-up act.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Wish he had talked longer.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Sometimes it's just as difficult because you've had such good success. You know you should keep it going. But it's also nice going into a match knowing that you have a lot of confidence and that the person's probably scared to play you, or isn't looking forward to also playing you. She just has the type of game that I like to play against. So far, I've had just great success against it.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Well, she doesn't have a very hard serve, so I can try and attack that. She doesn't have like a huge weapon. She likes to run down a lot of balls and get them back in play. But to me, I look at it that she can't really hurt me and hit a lot of winners. It's up to me to hit good shots and to go for it, just always be in control of the match.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I don't know ownership. I'm always very excited to play here, by far my favorite stop. I turned pro here five years ago. I won my first big one, like you said, here last year. I know I've always played well here in the years past. So for me, that gets me really psyched to play here. You know, it's even more exciting having the best players here this year. Just looking to do well and to get to maybe to play some of those top players.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Yeah. I mean, I love playing anywhere in Southern California. Here, I did go -- I lived about three or four years of my life very near here. I definitely have a lot of local fans, I think, that take interest in me. Also a lot of my friends from Newport Beach come down here. I always feel like I have a little support team here in Indian Wells.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I only played her once last year in Stanford. I won that match 2-2. You know, looks like she's a different player coming through qualifying, beating Tauziat. You know, each tournament is a little bit different, if the player is hot or not. She's definitely playing well, hits the ball hard. I haven't seen her play too much. I'll just look to play my own game.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Well, I mean, I would love to play Steffi. I mean, everyone's been real excited for her coming back. It's great to play her to see where she's at. It would be a very exciting match. You know, of course Natasha is my doubles partner. I would want her to win. I mean, it doesn't matter. It would be exciting to play Graf, but it would be nice to see Natasha win.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I saw her play last night and I thought it was the old Steffi Graf (laughter). I went out there at like 6:45. I thought I'd watch her play. She looked unbelievable last night. That's the Graf I remember. I mean, she looks so good when she's playing well, moves so well, hitting her forehands and backhands really close to the lines, just so dominant. You know, from what I had heard, she hadn't been so dominant yet in some of her matches. Last night she looked awesome again. She'll probably continue it. I don't know.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: No. When I heard she was out and pulling out at a couple tournaments and delaying her comeback, I thought this is a girl who has won twenty-one Grand Slam titles -- loves to win, hates to lose. She's not going to come back till she can win a tournament, till she knows she can play at the level she wants to play at. When she pulled out of Australia, I knew she'd take a few more weeks to get ready. I think all the players know she's only going to play a tournament if she can win it.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Yeah. I mean, I've played well my first two matches. I haven't been tested yet. But you can't really tell until you get to the later rounds and you play the good players. You can sometimes struggle just in the first couple rounds and then your game comes together. You can just play great, and then you never know. So I'm just keeping it one match at a time and looking to keep advancing.