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WIMBLEDONJune 26, 2008Lindsay DavenportLONDON, ENGLAND THE MODERATOR: Questions for Lindsay. Q. When you finished with the press conference here Tuesday, what did you need to do with your knee? What was the procedure from that point on? LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Yeah, after my match a couple days ago from - literally straight from the press conference - I went to the hospital and did an MRI, which came out looking actually good. The cartilage looks good. All the structure looks fine, the ligaments, the tendons. It just showed I had some inflammation and some fluid behind the kneecap, which my first thought was like major relief. It had nothing to do with my previous surgery on my knee. No immediate danger. It was just really inflamed and painful. So wanted to give it a rest all day yesterday. Did treatment twice. Wanted to see how I pulled up today in warmup. After warming up, I felt like I was about 25, maybe 30 percent. In a first, second round match, it's just not good enough. It's not going to get better the more I play on it. Prescribed rest. Q. How did the 25 to 30 percent manifest itself? What was the level of pain? LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Yeah, I mean, I was a genius if the ball was in the middle of the court in warmup. As soon as it was like four feet either side, I could get there, I couldn't push it off to get back into the middle of the court. I toyed with the idea of going out because it didn't hurt at all to serve. It's obviously not an easy decision to make. But, you know, at a certain point, it's the second round, and I feel like I want to be a hundred percent and have a chance to win, not just hope to get by one more round or one more set. My knee just wasn't going to allow that to happen today. Q. Disappointing when you were ready to play? LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Yeah. I worked hard to get ready to play here. I was excited to get back here. If I learned anything over my career, I mean, this is the way it goes sometimes. I was like almost in tears the other night. I was so relieved it was nothing major, like doesn't require surgery, it doesn't impact my previous surgery. So that actually put me in probably a better mood than I should be. But for me it's a huge relief. The diagnosis with, you know, three to four weeks, I should be fine. Q. How much were you able to do yesterday? LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I didn't do anything. Q. You're not concerned about the Olympics then at this point? LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I was 48 hours ago. But the doctors are very confident that the inflammation will go away and the pain will subside with that. Q. What's the previous surgery? LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I had microfracture done on my tibial plateau in 2002. That had me out about eight months. Yeah, the MRI that I took two days ago was virtually the same as the last time I checked my knee in '04, with the exception of the inflammation in my kneecap. Q. You're thinking three to four weeks of not doing anything? LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I mean, I can do some stuff. I can't be loading the knee, and that was the other concern with grass. You have to bend lower, put more stress loading, pushing back. So I'm not exactly sure. The immediate goal was to try to get me ready to go on the court today. That didn't happen. I'm sure we'll go over a more long-term game plan. My understanding was -- I don't know if it was to play a tournament in three or four weeks. I'm not entirely clear on that. Q. We've seen you get through 32 draws. Do you come out of this wondering if you really can get through a 128 draw, your body? LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I don't know. I'm not sure. I mean, I came into this with not a great knee, so I knew that going in. Unfortunately, made it worse in the first round, which I knew was a concern. In some ways Grand Slams are a little bit easier because you always have that day off, if the weather behaves, and other times you're playing every day. But, yeah, I mean, there's no question I'm a little bit older and a little bit more fragile than some other players. But, you know, I'll give it another chance in New York and see what happens. Q. What are your plans after the Olympics and New York? LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I have no plans, so I'm very shortsighted right now in my future, my goals. It's all about, you know, first obviously being a hundred percent for Beijing. Really looking forward to that. Then New York. Then no plans. Q. It seems like just the other day you were a rookie coming onto the tour. You've had this long career. What are your thoughts about the shortness of so many careers these days, particularly Justine? LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I mean, every player is an individual and goes about their career, their sport, whatever it is they choose to do, in their own unique way. For whatever reason I've been able to last a long time and still enjoy tennis and still like to play, still enjoy getting ready for the competition and all of that. Other people feel like they give it all they have for five years, six years, whatever, seven years, and they have no more to give. You know, I think you just have to respect every person that is different. I feel very fortunate that I've been able to have such a long career and have the opportunities a little bit later in my life when I'm a little bit more mature and a little bit of person than in my early 20s to experience it. Q. What's changed most in your mind as far as when you were talking about retirement just a couple of years ago, and now it doesn't seem you do talk about retirement at all? LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Well, because if I say that word, you guys jump all over it, so now I just pretend like I'm going to play through the London Olympics, and then I have no stress (laughter). You know, I don't know. I mean, there's certainly days where you feel like it's not something you want to do, like any person in their job feels like. There's other days where there's like, Oh, my gosh, I can't wait for the US Open in eight weeks. I'm going to start getting ready now. It's just kind of in your system that you're always looking forward and getting excited for the next event. But there was definitely some times in my career where I've been burnt out. I've taken a few short breaks and I've had two really long breaks, and they've both really helped me tremendously kind of get the fire back burning and want to come back out here. Q. So how great is that fire right now? LINDSAY DAVENPORT: You know, it's very high because there's two events that I've been wanting to play since I've been back, since I decided to start to try to come back. The Olympics were number one. That's on the forefront of my mind. To play in New York another time. After that, I have no plans. So I don't know what that means. But to get through, you know, September 10th, 11th, whatever, be healthy, is all that I'm aiming for right now. Q. As you leave Wimbledon, do you expect to be back here next year? LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I guess not, but it didn't go into my mind today like, Oh, this is my last chance to play here. You know, I haven't analyzed it to that point yet. You know, I expect to be back on tour in the next few weeks. How is that (smiling)? Q. Is recovery going to be complicated by an active toddler? LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Yeah, it could be, I guess. I mean, the main thing is like doing lunges, walking on it. I can certainly walk and do stairs, stuff like that. I think it's more the tennis and running. I think we'll be in the pool a lot. Q. Why New York? Why is that so important? LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Well, I don't know. It's the US Open, my first slam. A lot of great memories there. This was obviously really important. I knew about a week ago I was going to be coming in here at 50 percent because I can't get the pain in my knee to go down unless I rest. So I kind of came to terms with that a few days ago. But I feel like I still have an opportunity to play two major events. You know, it was kind of the beginning of everything for me there in New York. Q. Single best memory from New York? LINDSAY DAVENPORT: There's a few. I remember losing to Sabatini in a Round of 16 match in '93, which was like my first big match I ever played there. Obviously I remember winning. Those two always stand out when someone brings up the US Open to me. Q. Can I ask you a general question? LINDSAY DAVENPORT: You may. Q. Thanks. Are you annoyed or angry that injury and pain seem to be such a prominent part of the job? Is that something you'd like to see addressed, or... LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I think I just accept it. You know, I gave up trying to fight the fight about having an 11-month or 10-month season a few years ago, having a lot of expectations in a sport like tennis, where you're always kind of, you know, beating down your body. It's just you out there. It's tough to take breaks. You can't sub out when you're not feeling right and have someone take your spot. It's just kind of what happens. For me, I look at it like, Gosh, I played so many years. I'm so lucky that I'm still out there. There's a lot of other girls around my age that haven't been able to retake the court, so I feel like I'm lucky in some regard. Q. What do you recall about your Wimbledon win 1999? LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Yeah, uhm, just a lot of shock. I mean, I could see like when I won, I mean, I couldn't even believe it. I almost didn't even look happy. It just seemed so surreal. I remember everything just went right for me for the whole two weeks. Sometimes that's what has to happen in terms of weather breaks, how I played, how the draw worked out. Just a great, great moment in my career. Q. You were so close here in 2005. If you don't get that other slam, will you be at peace with that? LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Yeah, you kind of make peace with it when you're 32 years old and have a one-year-old, playing semi part-time. It's been really fun. Coming back, it was a huge goal of mine after just giving birth, and obviously having some extra weight and to see what I could do and challenge myself in that regard after having Jagger. It's been worth it every step of the way. Obviously the last few months have been more difficult just with injury. I got sick in Amelia Island, which had never happened. But, you know, I came back for the Olympics, and that was my number one goal. I still feel great about that. Q. Your return to the tour was greeted overwhelmingly positively by players, press, public alike. Does it mean a lot to you that so many young players look up to you as a role model? LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I guess. I mean, I've never made any decision based on that. But you'd be surprised. There were some people that weren't so positive about me coming back (smiling). But, yeah, I mean, I learned from example from other fantastic athletes, working moms everywhere, that it's not faux pas to try to achieve your own goals and try to have a family and a child. Hopefully another tennis player will do it. It's not that big a deal. It can be done, but I'm more proud of myself for taking the step and the courage to try to do this. It's not easy, obviously. It's not easy to be able to give totally a hundred percent. My mind a lot of times is elsewhere. I don't have time to necessarily train here or get work done here at home. But, you know, I think I've done really well with it. Q. Can you give us an update on the Jagger front. LINDSAY DAVENPORT: He's good. He's here. He's moving around here somewhere, I think waiting for me in the restaurant. He's great. I mean, we're so lucky. It took him one night of waking up in the middle of the night after flying here until he started sleeping 10 hours again. He's almost walking. He's very vocal. He's always on the move. He's developing a little temper, which I blame solely on my husband. And, yeah, he's a love. Like I said, we feel like we're the two luckiest people. Q. Does he have any awareness that mommy is... LINDSAY DAVENPORT: No. He always holds a racquet. He's always rolling tennis balls around. I mean, he comes to my practice almost every day at home, so he knows the sounds. He's likes sitting there. He's trying to follow the ball, but he's always about two shots too late (smiling). Q. You referred to the surreal and luck aspects when you won here in '99. What were your thoughts yesterday when Ivanovic won the net cord that saved her? LINDSAY DAVENPORT: It's amazing. Sometimes that's the way it goes. It could carry her all the way through. It might not. Obviously, it's too soon to say. For sure, skill and playing well and being healthy takes priority in winning a Grand Slam. But a lot of time luck plays into it, like I said, with weather, with a line call, with shots that might get you through one match. You know, she took her luck on that one shot and turned the match into her favor, so it wasn't just the one shot. Sometimes you need that, and you need to come off the court and exhale a little bit and then storm through the draw. We'll see what she does. But she took advantage of the luck that was given her yesterday and used it. Q. Do you recall a net cord playing that big a role in any of your matches or any others that you had seen? LINDSAY DAVENPORT: No, huh-uh. End of FastScripts |
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