Lindsay Davenport, a great tennis warrior
Posted on February 6, 2008
Filed Under WTA
The former #1 WTA tennis player Lindsay Davenport (31 years) has come back on the tennis courts with a lot of confidence and helps the United States win over Germany in Fed Cup.
Her tennis career is fantastic:
She was born on June 8th, 1976, in Palos Verdes, California, USA.
When she was 14 years old (1991) she had her first professional-level match. After 2 years (in 1993) she officially became a professional tennis player. Davenport’s doubles success in 1993 was a 17-16 record while she reached the top 100 in doubles rankings. The hard work and success brings her for the first time, in October 12, 1998, the hold of the #1 WTA position for 17 streak weeks. She became #1 WTA 5 times in the following years (1999, 2000, 2001, 2004 and 2005).
Davenport is #7 in holding record of being the #1 WTA tennis player (97 weeks).
After 4 years of marriage, she gave birth to a baby boy, Jagger Jonathan, on June 10, 2007. Just one month after giving birth to her child, Davenport announced that she would return to the WTA Tour.
In her first tournament (August 2007) she partnered with Lisa Raymond in the doubles competition at New Haven, where they lost in the first round.
Nobody thought she could repeat the performance of being the best, as she was in the past. Davenport returned to singles competition in Bali (September 2007) where she won her first title since 2005, defeating Daniela Hantuchova in the final. Among others, in that competition, Davenport defeated the third ranked player, Jelena Jankovic. After the Beijing tournament (September 2007), when she lost in SF against Jelena Jankovic, Davenport’s third tournament was in Quebec City, Canada, when she defeated the second seeded Vera Zvonareva in the semifinals 6-2, 6-7(3), 6-3 and Julia Vakulenko in the final. This was Davenport’s 53-rd career singles title and lifted her to #73 in the WTA rankings.
On January 14, 2008, Davenport surpassed Steffi Graf in career prize money earned on the women’s tour, gaining a total of US$ 21,897,501.
The latest success quickly put the Americans ahead on Germany (Monday 04 January, 2008) by defeating Julia Goerges 2-0 (6-1, 6-2) in 46 minutes - Fed Cup quarterfinal.
When a reporter asks her if it has been hard getting focus back, she said “I’m very comfortable admitting that I feel like I have gotten a piece of myself back since coming back. I had nine months where everything was focused on having a healthy baby. I was excited to focus on something that was about me and I had control over. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. Playing tennis makes me happy, which in turn helps me be a better mother and wife”
Great answer from a tennis warrior.
We wish her Good Luck!
Comments
lindsay is a great tennis warrior, a gentlewoman in and out of the tennis court, thus making her a true role model for young tennis players and respected among her peers. she may not have as many grand slams as graf or the williams and henin but for me, she is and will always be the true over-all tennis champion mom and player that she is.
I totally agree with Marie it’s the exact reason I’ve been a fan of Lindsay’s since 1994 and will continue to take an interest in what she does long after she has retired for good.
I would like to make a correction to the story. Lindsay lost in China to Jelena Jankovic not Elena Dementieva
Thank you for your error report Vicki.
I have corrected it.
Lindsay Davenport is like Xena, a very strong warrior. I missed a lot!