TMS - THE ERICSSON OPEN

April 1, 2000

Lindsay Davenport

WTA: Questions for Lindsay.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Yeah, I think the wind definitely played a part in it. If you're not on your toes and ready to go, the wind's going to make your life difficult. I was definitely a step slow today. Combined with the wind and combined with Martina not missing too many balls, it made for a rather ugly day for myself.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: No, my foot was fine. It was just maybe a cramp. I don't know what it was at the top of my foot the other night. No, I just think my body didn't recover as well as my foot did. That's life. You know, Andre struggled with it a little bit yesterday. I didn't come back as fresh as I needed to come back either.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Oh, yeah, many. I don't lose too many in the wind actually. US Open is always extremely windy, Australia. Today was just one of those days when you lose a little confidence in the wind, it's tough to combat it.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Yeah. It was impossible. I just didn't serve well. I mean, wasn't too many parts of my game that I was overall pleased with.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Well, not all right, but at least I was back into it. I was thinking, "Oh, God, I feel like Monica now." I mean I got right back into it. I put myself right back out of it. You know, it's nice to be able to write this day off and try and forget it, look back at the last few months instead, go on from there.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I don't think so. I mean, she put in a lot of first serves today. In the wind, that's important. I probably should have taken a lot off it and gotten my first serve in. I wouldn't have been stuck hitting second serves so much. But she just served very consistently. You know, like I said, I wasn't moving all that well. Returning can be a little bit difficult then.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I mean, I think so. I just felt really heavy today. My muscles. I still had a day off, so it was probably not a great excuse. But, you know, it's just one of those days where I felt really flat, just heavy.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Well, I think if I had held my serve to go 4-All, it would have been a little different. She still had the lead at that point. When I broke her at Indian Wells, it was to make it even. If I had held serve there to make it 4-All, a couple of those games in the beginning I had a game point here or there and didn't win. Right away she breaks me back to go up 5-3. Then she was fine, back confident again. You can come back with Martina, but you've got to make sure you get even or on top of her before she's going to, you know, get visibly frustrated.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Yeah, I mean, obviously it would have been great to win again, win another tournament in a row. For as well as I've been playing this year, Martina has played just as well. Every time I've beaten Martina in the past, I've played some of my best matches. Today I didn't play my best. That's what happened. You know against Martina, you're going to have to play well. I didn't do that. You know, now we get ready for a round of tournaments on clay, which favors her, then back on some grass and hard court, which hopefully goes my way again.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Yeah, it was disappointing that I just finished at 12:00 or 12:30. Not a lot of time to recover for the next day, although, like I said, I had a day off. It was a tough match. It was very emotional for myself, being up a set and a break, then fighting back, down a break twice in the third set. I felt like I was tired almost going into the match by playing so many matches. I really tried my hardest to pull that match out, and I did. I almost felt like I left everything out there that night; didn't bring anything today.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I'm not sure yet. Definitely a few days. All the way back to Miami next weekend for Mary Joe's wedding. Then I'm going to see how I feel next weekend about when I'm going to play again.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: It's my agent, who is one of my best friends, and one of my best friends in tennis. I'm right in the middle there. It's going to be an awful lot of fun. It's going to be hopefully be a really happy time back in Miami.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I mean, I think it's been pretty exciting the last few weeks with the race between Martina and I at No. 1. Unfortunately you're not going to get that with the men's tour anymore. The Women's Tour, I like the ranking system right now. I kind it hard to follow the men's. Lleyton Hewitt is 3 in the world, but seeded 15 here. I think that's -- I don't think that's the way to go. I think ours has been a great story line about me trying to get to No. 1, now I have No. 1, now Martina is going to try to get it back. We go on from there. I think it's been a good story.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I'm going to start in Rome. I'm supposed to play Amelia Island, Hilton Head. I've never been to Rome, so I'm going to give that a shot. I'll decide the week before the French either to play in Madrid or take the week off, then Paris.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: No.

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