PACIFIC LIFE OPEN

March 14, 2005

Lindsay Davenport

THE MODERATOR: First question, please.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: It was tough. You know, I thought it was tough in the beginning, and the third set it was the worst it had been the whole match. It's no fun to play like that. I mean, the spectators, it's tough on them. It's tough especially on the players. But especially here, you get the dust blowing around. It was not fun.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Pretty high. I mean, at the end it was almost, I mean, unplayable really. US Open last year a couple days got really windy. I was not in Miami last year where I heard it was really bad. I think the last two or three games that we played were some of the windiest I've tried to play in.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Just pray that it goes in so you don't have to hit a second serve, because it's so hard to control those. It was so obvious which way the wind was going. The one side against the wind, you were just hoping it would go over the net, and the other side just trying anything to do to keep it from going long. Most important thing is, you know, I was trying to hit more first serves and not worry about hitting them too hard. I think, you know, that helped me a little bit.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I sometimes -- I was switching racquets depending on which side I was on, so I was doing that. Like I said, I mean, it kind of is a shame when you play in conditions like that because there's actually no strategy that you can really enforce because you just have to try and keep the balls in and play the wind a little bit. It's too bad. But, you know, hopefully it calms down here sooner or later and get some better conditions to compete in.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I don't know. It was the worst I've been in. I've never held up for like 45 seconds just praying for like one second of a reprieve. It was bad. I don't know.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: And dusty. And it started getting worse at the end with the dust.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Yeah, I don't know. I think there should maybe be some kind of cap on what either miles per hour the wind is blowing. Once you start a match, it's pretty hard to stop it with a condition like that. Like I said, I mean, it makes for pretty awful tennis out there. Fans obviously don't enjoy sitting out there, trying to watch in that wind. But, you know, we've always managed to play through every condition pretty much except for rain. Maybe there's something you can do from stopping to put matches back out. I don't know if it ever comes down and you've got a couple days with no tennis.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: That's true actually, yeah. I just don't think it's ever been addressed. I'm curious to see what other players say. I would imagine it's even worse on the outside courts. Haven't been out there. But I would imagine it's even more difficult there because they don't have the shelter, you know, of obviously the stadium that we had.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: It can be pretty lucky. I mean, it was -- just trying to keep balls in. She served the first game of the third, up 40-15, I was with the wind and able to keep a few balls in and break. It seemed to kind of really dishearten her, whereas when we switched sides, she made a lot of errors with the wind. All you're trying to do is play the conditions. It's a shame because it took out any kind of strategy. You were just hoping the balls went in. Hopefully I handle the conditions a little bit better. It wasn't that much luck, but certainly some of it played into it.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I can (smiling). I'm not sure who won that.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: So Frazier lost?

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Probably can't talk too much about it. I'm sorry, I don't know.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I knew it was Frazier or Kutuzova, but I don't know. I've never seen her play, so...

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: It's pretty good. I mean even here, I've heard of Kirilenko before and seen her play a little, and she seems to have broken out here. They keep coming, more and more.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I don't know the answer to that. I don't talk to many players about it. I don't know. I mean, I know -- I've heard some quotes from Serena saying that she wanted the Americans back at the top. But as far as player to player, I don't talk about it. Personally I think it's amazing and quite an accomplishment that they all came up with different styles of games and pretty friendly, were able to all come up at the same time. But I don't know what the other ones think.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Well, I knew that the wind was going to be more of an equalizer. I played her a bunch of times before and feel like I have a good game against her and know what I need to do. It's hard to actually execute the plan when you're not sure where the ball's going and having to deal with those conditions. I thought in the second set she hit some great shots and she handled the wind better serving-wise. And that really made the difference in that set. Finally in the third, I was able to serve, you know, get 'em in. She made a few more errors in the third. It didn't surprise me going to a third set. I mean, I know she's a good player and we were dealing with pretty unsure conditions out there.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: (Shaking head negatively.)

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Gosh, you know, I was curious about that, who she might try and ask. Everything I've read has been Serena and myself. She did ask me what my feelings were about playing doubles. I said I would be happy to play. I don't know. I heard that the Belgians aren't sure who they're sending either. I don't know if they've named their team.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Are not playing. That's what I heard, too. We'll see what happens.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: It was kind of one of the reasons that I agreed to play. I thought that would be an exciting tie. That was going to be pretty fun and pretty tough first round. So I asked Kim here, and she said, yeah, that she heard that both of them weren't going, and they weren't even sure if the next couple girls were going because of injuries and an unsure schedule. So we'll just do our best to get by whoever they send.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Well, I think one is unsure, first of all, where your opponent's ball is going to land, how the wind takes that ball. And the other thing, controlling the ball. On one side you have to swing your absolute hardest and it still was barely going over the net. And on the other side, if you just touched it a little bit too much, it was going long. So you have to be able to really kind of change your game from what side of the court you're on. The other thing is trying to serve with the toss going absolutely everywhere. In the third set more so. When you looked up, there was dust everywhere. You want to start off the rally with a first serve and then just keep trying. For me, I was trying to keep the balls more in the middle of the court, you know, just not trying to go too close to the lines.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: It was going one way pretty solidly. Out there today it wasn't. In other matches it has swirled more. Today it was pretty one way.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: It might. It depends. I mean, sometimes here it's so nice to play. Today was kind of the toughest conditions I've had ever playing here. I think they were trying to go away from using too heavy of a ball for injury purposes, you know, to speed up play a little bit. But the air here is pretty light and the balls are playing pretty quick.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Absolutely. I think it can be a disadvantage to sometimes the better players. I think it definitely equalizes play. If you have a big serve, it kind of takes your serve out of the game. It's tough to really play the kind of tennis you want to play. You never know. I mean, you just have to do your best out there with it.