HOME DEPOT CHAMPIONSHIPS

November 6, 2002

Lindsay Davenport

Q. Lindsay, what were your thoughts coming into this match playing Monica the first round?

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Yeah, my thoughts were, you know, they were optimistic. I thought I would love to end the year on a good note and play well, especially here in LA. You know, I was looking forward to doing well during the end of the year and, obviously, I didn't end the year that way.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Luckily no, not one bit.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I can't even remember all of them, to tell you the truth. No, I mean, it just seemed like the whole second set, I let it go all the time from being up, you know, 40-love to Lord knows how many break points to Lord knows how many match points. It seemed to keep snowballing on me. Yeah, it's a match you should put away. There is no question she plays well when she's down and definitely steps it up a level. The same could be said that I did not do that at all tonight. When you combine the two, I couldn't quite pull out the one point I needed.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Well, you know, it's always tough receiving on an ad court against a lefty. I struggled a lot of the night to do that. The tie breaker, I felt like I could do it. I never played a good point. I never got a good first hit on any of the points. She would take control or the point even wouldn't start, so you know, gosh, I would love to go back and do a handful of them over again. Maybe just one of them, but, you know, it just never happens.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I would think. I mean, I have lost some matches that way, so it's disappointing, there is no question. On the other hand, it's just a little bit of a relief that this, like, year and fall is just kind of over. It's just been a tough couple of months, and I look forward to a break, and then coming back and trying to play at a higher level and be a little mentally fresher the last few weeks in Australia.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Right now I'm looking forward to just kind of taking a break and getting a few weeks off from all of it. I'll assess my goals again when I'm ready to start hitting again sometime in December, and look probably more closely then at what I think I need to do and what my coach thinks I need to do. It's hard to say now, but certainly there is technically, I think, some flaws as well as mentally kind of being a little bit more excited or encouraged to be out there playing.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I have no idea. I know she plays well. She always sometimes comes up with these big wins here and there. I really have no idea. I really don't know how well Venus is playing. If both Serena and Venus come into this tournament playing well, or even other players -- Monica has the weapons, but I think against some players like a Williams, who can move a little bit better and run around, it would be tough. Certainly, if they're not playing well, she can take advantage of that.