CHASE CHAMPIONSHIPS OF THE COREL WTA TOUR

November 21, 1998

Lindsay Davenport

Q. Steffi suggested that that was not the best of effort for one of you. Would you agree?

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: It wasn't a great match, no. I mean, no, I mean, you get days where both players don't play so well, but you have to see what happens. There was a lot of errors and just not a lot of great points. I totally agree.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Probably. I don't know when she pulled it. What she pulled or anything. I thought she was arguing a call and all of a sudden -- I swear. Then she just walked to the chair. I was having a hard time holding my serve, but I don't really know what happened out there. So I don't really know what to say.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: No, I wasn't tired. My foot was just sore, and I guess it helped. It didn't hurt obviously because I won the last three games, but like I said, it was just all kind of a blur because it was -- I was down Love-40. I won five points in a row, then she -- you didn't see her pull anything, then she called the trainer. Then like I said, I was kind of stunned. I was like, oh, okay, I will sit down. And then I saw her get it wrapped. Then we kept playing. So I was really kind of confused.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Yeah, I definitely wasn't expecting much of myself today. This morning when I was warming up I didn't feel great. I knew obviously Steffi was playing well. So kind of figured well, if I lose that is okay. I didn't really know what to say. But I thought I'd give it my best shot like you guys said neither one of us played that great and, you know, I was able to win not playing so well. With her not playing so well either.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: My foot.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: The blister got popped yesterday on my right foot. It felt okay today. Then this morning I had one on my left foot. They popped it right before the match but it is pretty -- I mean, I don't know, it is kind of hard to explain, it is just raw, so it is hard to run on. No, it is not a major injury. No, it is not a broken bone or anything, but it is sore when something is on your foot. But that is, you know, we all go through injuries, some major, some minor. That is just the way it goes.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I am going to try the hardest in the doubles. They are confident that tomorrow it should be a lot better just giving it time to heal overnight. Probably won't be so great in the doubles, so Zvereva is going to have to run a lot. But I am going to try. I don't want to quit in the doubles necessarily, but three out of five is going to be hard. Hopefully doubles maybe we can win easily and I will be able to get out of here, who knows.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Kind of. You are not very confident going for your shots. But at the same time you know you have to go for them. I was lucky because she was giving me some errors when I wasn't necessarily putting the best ball into play. But at the same time I was trying to sometimes be aggressive and come in and there was a lot of errors just being made in the whole match. So it was kind of a little tough to get a rhythm, but at the same time just thinking, you know, to hang in there, that is the only thing you can really do.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Yeah, I was trying to maybe come in a little bit on the backhand, watching Monica play the other night, she was just attacking all the time and being really aggressive. I thought she was playing -- really a great way to play Steffi. But as the match went on, this court is really fast and sometimes maybe if you can hit it hard and deep to the forehand she doesn't have a lot of time. But most often you try keep it away from the forehand if you can.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: No. I know that sounds weird. But for me coming into this tournament, you know, you always kind of sit down and think about things and I thought, well, I have had a great, great last four months. I have had an unbelievable year. Let me just try to do the best I can this week. Well, If it doesn't happen, that is fine. That is the attitude I really took this week. I have just been playing a lot of matches since July. But I have been able to tough it out, hang in there and I never thought if you'd ask me Monday if I would get to the Finals I would have said, no way. But tomorrow it will be fun three out of five sets, it will be great to play, if I play Martina, it will be really fun, one versus two. Even though I will be No. 1, it will be kind of an interesting match. We have played a lot this year, and if I play Spirlea, it will be kind of a similar match to today, same game style that she has to Graf.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: She played unbelievable tennis really almost since New Haven even with her little hand injury or whatever that was. She came back playing incredible, I think she loves indoors. That definitely favors her, but for someone to come back from all those injuries is remarkable, hopefully this isn't a major injury or whatever it was. Like I said I don't really know still.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Okay. I am sure she will be in Australia incredibly tough.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I played it once in the Finals in 1994. I lost in three sets, which wasn't a great start to it. But I like the idea, the concept of it. I think that the Finals, three out of five, are exciting because we never do that. It definitely gives you more opportunity to stay in a match and maybe if you are not playing so well and to pull matches out. So it will be interesting. Hopefully, you know, you can win -- my experience in '94, I lost in three sets. Hopefully I can come out with a better start, maybe win one of the first two and get the match going.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Well, there are so many times I played Steffi and so many times it has gone to three sets and a lot of those times I have won the first set. She always came back. Winning the first set didn't mean that much, especially the other night when she came back from 1-6 as well. I knew it was still going to be a very tough match to win. I think in Philly both of us probably played a little bit better, especially Steffi. It was a little bit a better match than today. But that is the way it goes sometimes. It has been a long two weeks for both of us just playing Philly and New York, and the court here is a little bit faster, so you can't get as many rallies going. And at the end, who knows what happens.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: No, when you play someone a lot, you kind of know the basic game strategy that you are going to have. No, I didn't really learn any breakthrough ideas from last week, no.