WIMBLEDON

June 25, 2005

Lindsay Davenport

Q. This isn't a hard tournament, is it?

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Well, it's probably going to be just a little bit tougher from here on out. You know, I've always felt like on grass, if you play well and are aggressive, you know, there's a lot of girls that don't like to play on grass, you can try and take advantage of that. Feel like the grass helps the pace of my shots a lot.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Not yet.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: It was okay. I appreciate them not putting us out there for one or two games and then not being able to finish. They didn't put us on for like those 20 minutes when it hadn't started raining. They said it was most likely going to rain and then never stop. So that was actually better to do that than play like two or three games and then have to be called out. But, you know, you never like waiting around all day, getting ready to play, then not having the opportunity to. Having said that, I think I handled it well, was in good spirits, was ready to go when we came out today.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Adult here.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Yes. Quallies, '92.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I lost first round (smiling).

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Jennifer Santrock. Left-handed girl. It's tough. I mean, '93, I came and got to the third round here. But other than that, there was no -- I never saw a grass court and struggled quite a lot until around '98 when I finally felt like I was able to handle it better. Since '98, it's been great. Before '98, it was a struggle.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I think that my coach, Robert, at the time helped me a lot by talking to me about grass, and telling me, especially women's tennis, girls do not like grass, you hit hard, if you can get your timing. Just really kind of talking me through. '96 and '97, I lost really early both years and wasn't really all that excited coming back in '98. You know, spending some time on it at home helped a little bit, too.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: No offense, but the courts in Roehampton in '92 were not good.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Yes. They didn't cover them back then and I don't think they used a lot of -- like they didn't cut all that much, but it was tough. Anyone struggles on grass the first few times, I would think.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Especially grass courts that don't bounce, you know, that was pretty tough. Here at Wimbledon they make it so great, because it's almost like a really fast hard court. Obviously, I mean, these are the best grass courts anywhere. That's a reason why I don't necessarily go to a lot of other tournaments beforehand. The courts there are not like the courts here at Wimbledon. If you get used to moving on grass a little bit, these are like a hard court sometimes, most of the time.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Good. I mean, I feel a lot better than I did at the French when I was barely winning matches and sets. That's a positive. And I've played, you know, three opponents that I've been able to take control of the match and dominate. So it's been nice that I've been able to step up and do that. You know, obviously Monday's going to be a lot different story. Kim's not going to let me do that so easily and will get more balls back and will really press me a lot more than I've pressed so far.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I think injuries, the injuries led to some confidence problems. But I thought it was a shame. I saw the draw and I was disappointed, I mean, for everybody - the fans, themselves. A Round of 16 is much too early for those two to play against each other. Must be a hard week, you know, kind of leading up to that match. I mean, both of them had - Serena more so - a really serious injury and still kind of fighting their way back through multiple injuries.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: From them?

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I don't know. I think that's a little early to say. I mean, they have the games and they have the ability to do that. It's been consistency and it's been consistency and able to play tournaments healthy and be able to practice. I think they've been plagued by quite a lot the last 18 months.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Yeah, I mean, it's great. I mean, you never obviously want to keep losing to somebody. It's a totally different story here on the grass. Very, very surprised personally to have won on clay of all surfaces against her. But, you know, hopefully that plays some role into it. Would have liked to have won in Indian Wells in March. We played a really good match. Both of us I thought played really well - her especially. But, you know, hopefully the grass gives me an advantage. I'm not really sure. We played once many, many years ago. But, I don't know, she's a tough player.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: For the match?

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I've played for so long, that doesn't -- I've played bigger matches - no offense - than a Round of 16 match at Wimbledon. I think I'll be fine.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Yeah. You were here the other day, right? I think you asked me that then. Yeah.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I don't know.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Yes.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Uh-huh.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: (Nodding head.)

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Yeah. I mean, I have a lot of obviously wins coming up and have a lot of titles behind me with ranking points. But a lot of those have come from July of last year through October or so. I've got an interesting summer coming up, a lot of tournaments that I love to play, but did well in last year. You know, it's inevitable that I'm going to fall in the rankings. Any mathematician can figure that out. I think I'm just going to, you know, worry about trying to play well and really worry about the preparation for the US Open and hopefully can play as well as I did last summer.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Thinking about Wimbledon?

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Oh, no. I mean, it's great I've been able to come back. You know, I'd like to go better than I did here last year. Had some great opportunities. You know, didn't happen for me. But I'm back. I'm feeling good. I mean, got a really tough match, like I said, on Monday. You know, hopefully, I just really look forward to playing well.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Yeah. I was really disappointed that they did stuff for the men and kind of not for the women. I don't understand the disparity, why treat some of us one way and some of us the other way.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I heard that (smiling). I was really disappointed in that regard. I think if you're going to do something like in the men's game, moving a player from 5 to 2, then you should probably apply the same kind of standards. Example, I mean, Venus has an unbelievable record here since '99 or 2000, yet someone -- an example, like Patty Schnyder never made it out of a second round, and she's seeded like 9 or 10. I think that they definitely could have looked at it a little bit harder and made a little bit more of an effort in that case.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I don't understand the philosophy of, "We're going to do this for the men, but we won't do it for the women." As an American, it makes no sense.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: God, it's so hard to call those. I mean, I have no idea. I don't think Serena's at a hundred percent here, and that might play some factor into it. You know, I haven't seen Venus play at all this week either. She had a good win today. You know, maybe she'll play well. I mean, she beat her in Miami. But I think it's impossible for anyone to really say for certain what they think or they know what's going to happen.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: You know, we say that, and then it still happens. No one thought after Steffi that someone would come along and dominate. First it was Venus and then Serena. Justine won three slams not so long ago. That's pretty controlling. I think it's hard to say. I mean, it seems like the depth at the top is getting spread out more and more. We've got a lot of good players. We've had a lot of injuries that has kind of depleted the field sometimes. I've kind of learned never to say that will never happen. I don't know if it will happen for those two or a new player coming along. Right now it's been a pretty even field the last 12 months.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I don't. I mean, we had so many breaks in between because of my injury and then her injury. It goes back quite a long ways. I know through the summer of 2003, I had a bad streak going. I think that might have been like the bulk of the losses in that time period. But, you know, that's when she was playing great. I mean, she was I think 1 in the world and really dominating everybody. But definitely got into a bad run there.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Yeah, I hope to be here and playing and everything. I don't really have any "for sure" plans at this moment. I'm definitely going to finish this year out and hopefully stay healthy. If I'm playing well and healthy, I really think I'll be back next year. There's no reason why I won't. I think the most important thing is how my body responds.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I think just an attitude in general. I mean, it's a very tough surface. A lot of the girls that are so good on clay naturally are at a disadvantage when they come onto a grass court. I think it kind of favors the more aggressive, hard-hitting players, good servers. I just think it's so tough when we have just three or four weeks of grass court tennis in one year for a lot of the players to really love it.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: There are a lot of tall players. I remember I was out with my knee surgery for those eight months and came back to a tournament in LA, played a girl I never heard of. Walked on the court with Elena Bovina. I was like, "Oh, my gosh, this girl is so tall." I didn't know who she was. I think if she's not taller than me, I mean, for sure my same height, which is very rare. There are a lot of tall girls. A lot of us are at the top, or near the top. I think that the height average has definitely gone up from when I first started.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I think 7-6, 6-1. I think.