TMS - INDIAN WELLS, WOMEN

March 12, 2000

Lindsay Davenport

Q. It's up to you now because Agassi is out.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I didn't see any of it. I just actually heard right now. They said, "You better hurry and go to press before he goes in there." Let's hurry this up. Just kidding. It's surprising. Seems the last two weeks he's not been as dominant as he's been for the last year. I'm sure he'll rebound at some point.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I'm sure somewhere (laughter). I mean, it's hard. As Agassi has shown, it's really hard to always maintain the level of focus and consistency and being so intense in every match. It's tough to do. So far, I mean today, I played a really good match, best -- well, I played well the first round, but much improvement from yesterday. You hope to keep going, but inevitably.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: My reign (laughter). You never know. It's going to be a tough match tomorrow. Either playing Conchita Martinez or Dominique Van Roost. It's not getting easier, that's for sure.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Conchita?

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Oh, Halard. No, I've played Julie, I swear, six times since August maybe. I lost one the first time, but I've beaten her a number of times now in a row. You think about it. I thought I didn't play well that day, she played pretty well. Then you know that can happen going out on the court, that I have to play at a certain level to win. Today and when I played her in Australia, I played very, very well, the right way. That's all you can ask.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Difficult opponent for me my whole career. I don't have a winning record against her. I beat her last year in a tough three-set match, the only time we played. It's going to be a tough match, especially here. If it's during the day, it's really hot. It's going to be probably a longer match than I've been having, for sure. She gets a lot of balls back, mixes it up. I always have had a hard time with that, a lot of topspin - a lot of slice. Hopefully I'm a more all-around player and complete player than I was three or four years ago when I lost to her a number of times. It's a good challenge. I like playing with someone I haven't played in a while, a tough opponent.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Yeah. I mean, the ball travels very quickly here. The court is a little slow, so that definitely combats it a bit. But the same thing, I'm sure, Andre has been experiencing is it does fly more. If you're off a little bit, the ball is going to keep going out because it is lighter air. But if you're feeling good and the balls are going in, my balls are going to be traveling a lot faster and hopefully giving opponents less time and a lot of trouble. But you've got to control it a little bit better than in normal conditions.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: You know, like I said, the air is fast and the court is not so fast. If I'm playing well, I'm hitting balls early, I'm hitting my winners, it's not going to matter too much about the court. If I'm having a little bit of an off day, the slower court will definitely give her an advantage. But a slower court will give me a little bit of an advantage returning. It always gives the returner a little more time. If I serve really well, if it's a fast or slow court, I think the girl might have problems if I'm serving well and real hard. Hopefully it won't be too big of a deal.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I think Dokic still is a little bit inexperienced, maybe making too many errors. I didn't see the match, but I could see Conchita a junior, not a junior but a rookie, a hard time mixing it up. She did me for a couple of years (laughter). I can sympathize with Jelena right now. If Dokic started missing a little bit, that's what would happen.

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