WIMBLEDON

July 8, 2000

Lindsay Davenport

MODERATOR: Good afternoon, everyone. Lindsay for you.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: You always have to go out there expecting your opponent to play very well. I thought that her big win was against Martina in the quarters, that was kind of maybe the win that got her over the hump a little bit. But, still, I was hoping for a little bit more out of myself, and then it could have been a lot more exciting match. You know, I tried really hard to get back into it. I was just one or two points away from maybe turning it around and winning the second set. It didn't fall into place today. At the end, in the tiebreak, she won the last few points. That's what you have to do to win it.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Well, I had problems with my leg and back for weeks and months now. You know, it's been like not great every match, but I've gotten through it. It's tough when your opponent is hitting the ball so hard, on the lines. That tends to make it a little worse. It's been no worse than in other matches. It was just really hard to, you know, combat the power that she was giving me and try and run down enough balls on the grass.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: It is difficult. But considering the circumstances, getting to the finals was one of the toughest things I've done in my career. You know, like I said, I was close to maybe turning the match around today and fought so hard this whole tournament, because I never felt like I played my absolute best tennis here. That was a great thing that I'm going to take out of this tournament. It was tough, considering the circumstances, not playing that many matches and being hurt before.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Well, that's nice of him. But a lot of times it's going to be written about the winner. She won the match today. You know, she deserves all the headlines. That's the way it goes. That's very nice of him. Like I said, I think they should all go to her.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Yeah. You couldn't help but feel a little bit sorry for her last fall when Serena won the first one. You knew eventually she was going to win a Grand Slam. I mean, who knows when it was going to be. I think she's only 20. I don't know. I think she's only 20 right now. She had many more years to do it. It seemed like the press was always getting on her case, "When are you going to do it? When are you going to do it?" I went through that for a certain amount of time. It's nice to see the monkey get off her back. Both Serena and Venus are going to win more Grand Slam titles as their careers go forward. She's obviously going to be a lot tougher to beat now that she has this first one under her belt.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Yeah, I didn't quite see what happened after I shook her hand. I went back to my chair. I thought something crazy might happen. I saw what she did when she beat Martina. I thought, "Oh, God, it's got to get way worse today." I kind of went back, put my racquet down, didn't really pay much attention to it. Maybe one day I'll watch the highlights of it.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Everybody goes through some severe emotions when they win their first ones. I mean Serena was the same way, just so excited. You can never fault anyone for feeling elation or feeling whatever goes through your mind when you win the first. Unfortunately for me, I cried. I wish I had gotten more happy (laughter). That's just the way people show their emotions. I mean, every other sport, it's fine.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I think that's a big thing to happen, is to get the first one, like I said, under your belt, then go from there. It seems like you're always kind of doubting yourself until you win your first one. It's holding you back a little bit. I think this will help her career, help her win a lot more titles, for sure.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Probably. I mean, it's hard to say what's going to happen, especially with injuries and everything. But, I mean, she has the game. I can't see this hurting her career by any means.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Yeah, I wish I had played a little bit better. Kind of seemed to be the story of the whole tournament - just not playing my best, but playing well enough to win, getting a little bit better as the tournament went on. There were a few points today that I'd love to take back, a few things that I wish I could have done a lot better and differently today. But a lot of that was caused by her. I mean, she was hitting the balls a lot deeper than I was, and that didn't give me the chance to hit the shots I wanted to hit and sometimes forced me into going for a little bit too much. But, you know, live to see another day here at Wimbledon.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Yeah, once the back settles down with the inflammation, obviously I'll have to go on to strengthening. It's hard to do that when it's hurting. For the next few weeks and through the summer, I've got to work on all those great exercises to get it better.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Yeah, I mean, both of us just couldn't hold serve. You know, I thought myself, I wasn't getting enough first serves in. Obviously when you know you're playing a good returner, you go for a little bit more on your second serve. I had a few double-faults. It's just tough to defend the shots when she's taking a good rip at it. For myself, I mean, I thought I was trying to get her first serve back into play. Obviously they're coming very hard - trying to build the points around that. It's funny. I would have thought it would have been the opposite: we would have been holding and not breaking all the time. Just got to hang in there with whatever's happening on that day.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: My coach was there, two friends from home, my agent, and Mary Joe, my boyfriend, and two other friends from home.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: What?

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: For the match?

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I don't know. My coach did it all, where everyone was going. I don't know. I hope I'll use them in the future.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I just felt I was making too many errors, yeah, hoping she would make a few errors. It's very hard to control pace on grass. I mean, that's one of the most difficult things there is. When I was there, you know, it's hard to really go for shots because then you don't want to miss. If you don't, she's going to get another hit at it. If I had maybe had an easier time holding my serve in the beginning, maybe I would have felt a little less pressure on certain shots and would have felt like I could go for it a little bit more. When you're constantly struggling to hold, you feel a lot more pressure in the points that you're playing.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: It's definitely gotten more consistent. I think that's a side that a lot of players would pick on, a lot of times that's the side that would let her down in some of the bigger matches she played. Today I thought she controlled it very well. I mean, she hits the ball very hard, if not the hardest, on the tour. Obviously there's a group of people that hit hard - Mary Pierce, Monica, Serena obviously. Her ball's always coming hard, she's really never mixing it up that much. It's tough to stand in there. Like I said, on grass, it's even tougher.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Yeah, she gets the balls that you don't think a lot of players would get to. Most of the times, real aggressive players aren't really that quick. You always think the quick players are more defensive players. I mean, it's tough. You've got to really force her to make errors because she's going to run down balls, but I wasn't able to do that.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Well, obviously, I mean, this is the first Grand Slam final I've lost. It's tough. I mean, you don't ever want to lose once you get to this situation. I thought I was trying so hard to hang in there. It just didn't work. But, you know, I think I'm always able to look at the big picture. In terms of if someone had told me before the tournament started I would be in the finals, I would have been pretty happy considering how poorly I was playing before it began. I would have loved to have changed some things today, but, gosh, I've played this game a long time and realise that's not always possible. I'll get over it.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I don't quite understand.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Well, I think, I mean, she's the first African American to win since Althea Gibson, and no one has been in the final since Zina. Obviously that's a big step. I would have liked to not have let her won, to stop it. But her and Serena are going to win many more titles. They've been great influences in the game. To see everything that they've gone through and their athleticism, they're showing that tennis players can be very athletic. I mean, they've done great things for the sport.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Oh, well, you know, I think I could have pulled out that second set, regardless of what was happening. Finally held serve to go up 6-5. I think I had Love-30 in that game, a few chances to win the set. A few shots here and there and I would have pulled that set out. Who knows what would have happened. She got a little bit tight serving for it at 5-4. Who knows if I would have won that set. Like I said, I mean, it was just tough to get handle the pace and get the balls back on such a fast court.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Well, this tournament, yeah, the forehand was a lot more consistent. I don't know if it has to do with the grass or if she really worked on it a lot. I don't know exactly the reason. This tournament win will only give her more confidence in all her shots. Obviously she worked on a lot of things in her game during her break.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Yeah. I mean, she showed very good feel. Especially on grass, that's hard to do. I was behind the baseline trying to handle the power. I thought if I was too close, I wouldn't be able to handle it. She came up with some great shots like that.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Well, you know, the eight weeks from April through -- ten weeks, April through mid June, were very disappointing, being injured and not playing, then trying to play injured. That was not very good. But the beginning of the year was great. Hopefully, this is turning around my year again to get ready for the summer hard court tournaments. Hopefully I can get a little bit of a roll off getting the finals here and working toward the US Open and the Olympics again.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I'm going to go to Hawaii on Monday for a week, try and recover, have a good time, then get ready for the hard courts. Practising at home for a week or so, playing in Stanford, San Diego, just getting ready for the hard court season in California, then on to the US Open and also the Olympics.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Well, I just didn't hear a call. I wasn't convinced the shot was in. I thought it might have been out. I didn't hear exactly a call, I didn't hear an overrule. When I heard the score, I was just kind of curious about what exactly transpired. Like I said, I thought the ball could have been out. I just didn't hear anything.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I would have served a lot better.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Well, sometimes you just don't serve that well, just out of rhythm maybe. I don't know. I mean, I wish I knew. I would have figured it out then.