WIMBLEDON

July 1, 2000

Lindsay Davenport

MODERATOR: Good evening, everyone. Lindsay Davenport.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Well, it was a lot easier than the other day. I'll take two sets over three sets when I'm down any day. It got much better as the match went on. I broke a lot of times in the first set, but got broken right back I think twice, then finally managed to serve it out. From there, the second set was a lot better. Felt like I was timing the ball a lot better than I had the first two matches. If anything, that was a good step that I needed to take. Hopefully it keeps going.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Well, it was a little bit of luck involved with the scheduling. They told me they would make it as easy as possible. It's tough when I was playing the next match on. It was likes 6-2, 2-1. "Okay, your turn to go out there." I was a little nervous about the timing. It worked out unbelievably. I got to watch like the first 20, 30 minutes on TV, get some stuff done before I played. It was just amazing to see all the players that were introduced, especially right before me, like Bjorn Borg, John McEnroe. It was unbelievable to be a part of that. I'm really happy it worked out that I could be.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Gee, that's impossible to answer. Well, there's so many. All those people are tremendous. I would hate to just pick one out of those.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Well, like I said, it was really neat to see how the crowd reacted, especially to Borg. I don't think he's been back here. I don't think he's been back, I'm not sure. That i think was probably the best moment of the ceremony.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I don't know if they've stayed away. I haven't talked to any of them.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I think so. Try not to look into those and see what they say. I imagine that they have.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I think there's some papers that you can read that are a little bit more appropriate than some of the others. I can read like The Times that report actually on the tennis.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I'm sure there are. You know, every player, they like to pick on one subject with them, whether it's Kournikova or Dokic or whoever. I think they always are looking for something, especially sometimes looking for stuff that's not even there, trying to make a story out of it, misinterpreting the answers on purpose. That can always be tough, how you answer them.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: No, I don't read them here.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Yeah, it was nice to play. The last two players I've played have been baseliners with two hands off both sides, hit the ball relatively hard. But it's tough. I mean, Jennifer hits the ball a lot harder than this girl I played today. It will be tricky kind of getting used to the speed of her shots on the grass. You know, it was good. I thought I returned a little bit better today than I did the other day, was creating a little bit more depth, creating rallies a little bit better. You know, Jennifer will definitely have to be the aggressor from the beginning, not let her get the first shot on the ball. On grass, once you hit one great shot, the point is tough to recover. I'm going to really have to go for my returns and get the first, like I said, hit at the ball.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: It's probably not as great as it was going last year. I thought coming in here I felt really confident and was hitting the ball and timing the ball great. This time I didn't start off that way, was really fighting it for a few days. Finally the last two, three days, it's clicked a little bit better. I just hit again after the match, and I hit very well. I'm very happy about that. Hopefully I think it's coming around. A little bit in Australia, I didn't feel like in the beginning I was doing all that well. By the end, I was hitting great. Hopefully I just keep loose. I don't think I had the same confidence last year as winning the first three rounds so easily.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I guess (laughter). Yeah, I mean, it's nice to be able to be in control of the points again. That's her style of game anyways. But, yeah, I felt like I was in control of a lot of points.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Like I said, Jennifer hits the ball a lot harder, is a lot more aggressive than this girl probably is. Serve is probably a little bit better, is much more aggressive than the girl I played today.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I think so. I played her again a few weeks after Australia, haven't played her since February. But grass is always a little bit different. You don't necessarily get into rallies, so the -- as points go on, there's certain things I think she might do. Probably won't get to that point on grass. I think I've got a fairly good read on her serve hopefully. I haven't seen her play here yet, if she's changed it a lot. I think I know where she likes to go. On grass, they're not long rallies. It's the one who hits the best shot first.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I have no idea. I mean, she was at a pretty high level in Australia, then I think, you know, splitting from Harold, she kind of went down again. It looks like the last few weeks, she's been winning some matches again and trying to get back up there. I don't really know her well enough to say what she has left in her or how badly she wants it or anything like that. So I don't know.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Maybe. I mean, in Australia it seemed like it. It was getting close in the second set. I was able to pull it out. That was a huge match. I guess so. You know, it's a little bit different meeting earlier in a tournament than the latter stages. Like I said, it looks like she's played well so far. You know, obviously I'll try and keep the mental edge. But I don't know.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: It's been different. You know, obviously I would have loved to have played doubles. It's also nice maybe just to go work on some singles stuff. Like today we were able to go hit after my match, tomorrow just worry about practising for Jennifer, and not playing doubles. So I'll probably think about it at the end of this tournament, if I liked it or not, see if that's something I would want to consider in the future or not. Kind of nice not having to be at the courts on your days off or having to wait around. I'll see how it goes.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I think there's a lot of Americans that have gone through, Lisa Raymond, Jennifer, myself, both Williams, Monica. It's been really great. There's always like a level of players, it seems, that always gets forgotten because they're not at the top, like Osterloh, Brandi, even Raymond to a certain point. It's been a very good tournament, especially after the Americans didn't do so well in Paris. It's nice to see everyone still around here.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I mean, I've always said if you grew up in the '80s and started playing tennis, you were a girl, it was impossible not to have Chris Evert as your role model. I mean, she was everywhere, really just embodied what the whole sport should be, acted so great. That was her. As I got older and started developing my own game, things changed. She didn't play the same style necessarily. But when I first got into tennis, when I was five or six in the early '80s, she was it.