WIMBLEDON

June 29, 2000

Lindsay Davenport

MODERATOR: Good afternoon, everyone. Lindsay.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Physically I've been feeling really good again, which is great news. You know, so far I've played a couple matches the last two weeks, nothing has come back. I'm happy about that. Just trying to get my game back to a higher level, trying to play more to make that happen. I think it's always tough when you have injuries. I was on such a roll there that I wasn't -- you don't really think about things when you're playing well. All of a sudden when I was out for almost two months with a couple matches, your tennis just starts to hurt a little bit.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Well, just trying to make sure physically that I stay healthy and getting a lot of treatment and therapy that way; just trying to, you know, enjoy the grass court tennis, trying not to get hurt. It's a tough surface to play on. We don't play on it that much. It can just be very miserable sometimes because you're not that used to it. I mean, really just trying to focus on the tennis and staying healthy.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I mean, I just started off the match so poorly. I found that was happening in Eastbourne also. For some reason, just getting off to really slow starts, not feeling very good at the start of matches. I fought back, you know, got it close again in the first. But she still held on to win the first. I was feeling better in the second, you know, thought I had a good roll going. Just to get broken first game of the third kind of deflated all the confidence and the roll I had started. Got down another break, 3-Love. It's funny because I really felt finally at Love-3, a few game points, I finally started to hit my shots a little bit better, a little bit better. Just seemed to me the whole match I wasn't using the whole court; I was just using the middle, not making her run much, not putting a lot of pace on the ball. I started hitting out a little bit more and finding my range slightly. Lucky didn't get down too far there at the end.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: No. Physically I've been feeling great. Just not a lot of confidence in my shots, I guess.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Well, I knew it was going to be tough, but even though it's two breaks, she still has to win three more games, which is kind of a long ways to go. I knew it wasn't on the tip of my racquet, the victory.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: It's not so much the pressure of defending for me right now. It's the pressure of trying to play better than what I have the last few weeks, the pressure of trying to get my game to where I think it should be and to where it's not exactly right now. For going on Centre Court the other day, I enjoyed that a lot, thought I played well there. Today, played better at certain times of the match and got through it. Just trying to play each match and hope my game gets better each day.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I hope so. I mean, the last six games, I thought I hit the ball great. That's what I'm going to try and remember through the next two days, just remember how I was hitting the ball at the end, try to start my next match, try to get off to a quicker start, try and win some games in the beginning.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Well, yeah. It's the kind of tennis I need to be playing. Like I said, I didn't feel like I was getting a lot of depth or a lot of angles on the court. Really, she was dictating the play. You know, when I'm playing well, I'm really hitting the ball deep, off the court. Just didn't feel like I had that. Finally I loosened up a bit and started hitting out a little bit more, thought I forced a few more errors. That gave me a little bit more confidence to keep going for some more shots. Obviously she got a little nervous, started missing a little bit more. The combination of the two helped.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Oh, that's fine.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Those papers aren't exactly the type of publications I'm dying to be in. I can let that go.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: No.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: No. I mean, as the tournament goes on, the level that I play or any other player plays has to get better and better. Although I was playing a good opponent today, I definitely got lucky. Like I said, I just can't start off sets so slow and get down early. I mean, it's tough to always try to fight back, fight back. I was able to do it today, but you can't always count on that to get you through.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Uh-huh.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Well, I've had problems with my left leg since late last year in New York, through Australia. A lot of that sometimes contributes, just some of the problems I have, also a back injury. What I'm doing is just wrapping it to make sure, give some extra support to my back and left upper hamstring. It's not bad. It's just more precautionary, trying to keep it from getting bad.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Uh-huh.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I think it's tough on her a little bit. She definitely has a lot of expectations put upon her. I'm sure it's hard for her to hear that, oh, she doesn't care about tennis, because I actually think she does a lot. I think she works very hard. She practises a lot. I think it's tough for her because she can't really win. I mean, it's not her choice to be put on everything. Obviously she likes the attention, but I think she would want to win a Grand Slam title before all that.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I don't know. I mean, I'm not really sure what her goals are, what is the most important thing to her. I would think it is being a better tennis player. Maybe some things she feels would be fun to do off the court. I don't really know.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I don't know. I mean, I think she works very hard, like I said. Some people, with their games, just develop later or have some flaws or have whatever. I mean, she's worked hard on her serve. She's not double-faulting. It's not really a weapon. She's kind of got to go to the next stage on her serve and just get more consistent with her groundstrokes. They're real flat, sometimes makes a lot of errors, really work on getting some more balls in. Like I said, I think she does spend a lot of hours out there. She's only I think 19. I mean, she's not like retiring anytime soon.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: For me, it gets tiring, the stuff that I do do. I find, especially playing tournaments, it's very hard to go do outside stuff and drive, whether it's to London to do something, whatever city you're in. I think you'd find that most of the top players don't really do anything during Grand Slams. I think you'd find that Steffi never did much, or maybe even Monica. Personally, I think it's great just to get away from it all and play tennis.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: No. I think that's just society in general.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I think too long and just a lot of tournaments, a lot of big tournaments that are just spread out over a long period of time. We start the year in January with a Slam and we end the year in November with what's supposed to be a huge tournament, The Masters, The Championships. It's just tough to always, you know, get yourself peaked, then kind of slow down a little bit, then try to get going again, then slow down. Just too many months and too many matches.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: Well, I think the season should probably be shortened, maybe cut back on a few of the tournaments in the mid level. We have like nine or ten of the Tier Is, just too many I think Tier IIs that entice the players to play.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: It is amazing. It's very difficult to play on because we don't spend a lot of time on it. I've always said that. One of the things my coach told me coming in here was that, "No player really likes to play on grass. You've won this tournament. That automatically gives you more confidence than the other girls because you didn't like it years ago, and nobody really likes it in the beginning." Keep that in mind. What Pete has done six out of seven years is absolutely incredible. His serve is just a weapon on this. I mean, you can't get it back. He looks pretty good to win it again the next few years, I think.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT: I think what I said or meant to say was that they're very concerned about their own game. That can be good or bad depending on who you're playing, what the circumstance is like. On grass, there's not a lot of thinking going on. It's get the first hit. You've pretty much won the point. You know, it's a lot better on grass when you're worrying about yourself, trying to hit the ball hard, going for it. It's hard to retrieve those really hard-hit shots and the hard serves on grass. It's an advantage for them.