Is She Recovered Enough to Challenge Serena?

Davenport: from rehab to Grand Slam semifinal

By Sandra Harwitt
tennisreporters.net

Fred Mullane Camerawork USA, Inc.

FROM THE U.S. OPEN – On Tuesday afternoon in the women’s quarterfinals, Lindsay Davenport lost her first set of the tournament before upending unseeded Elena Bovina 3-6, 6-0, 6-2 to move into her fifth career semifinal appearance at the U.S. Open. For Davenport, however, losing a set en route to the semifinals at her only Grand Slam date for the year seems pretty acceptable considering the fact she wasn’t even sure she’d be playing this tournament at the beginning of the year.

Davenport, who won the first of three Grand Slam trophies she owns right here at Flushing Meadow in 1998, suffered a serious right knee injury at the end of last season and was forced to forfeit her berth in the season-ending final.

Arthroscopic surgery followed to correct a full thickness cartilage defect in the knee and she spent the majority of the year rehabbing instead of playing tennis. But now Davenport’s earned an appointment to play Serena Williams in the semifinals, following the world No. 1’s 6-2, 6-2 over Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia in Tuesday night’s quarterfinals.

“I really could have never said that this would happen, especially after January and February,” Davenport said. “I mean, it was just impossible in my mind. I was just hoping to be able to play here.”

THE JOYS OF REHABILITATION
As Davenport has been quick to inform, being on the sidelines and dealing with rehabilitation was not something that came easily to her.

“It’s not to be emotional or dramatic about it, but just not being able to move my leg more than 25 degrees for the first few days, like fighting just to try and get one more degree for the day and end where I’m supposed to be just being in a hospital alone.

“You know, sitting in that machine, I’ve talked about many times, eight hours a day for eight weeks, almost put me like in an institution. It was driving me crazy. Then to come out and just still be in the semifinals of a Grand Slam, still have a great summer, I don’t know why I’m reflecting on it now.”

Davenport has earned 37 career titles, including the ’98 U.S. Open, ’99 Wimbledon and ’00 Australian Open. Bbut when she was down on her luck in the winter, she was wondering if she’d ever recover to have the Midas touch. Returning to the court this summer, however, the Southern Californian has reached at least the semifinals of all four tournaments she’s played leading into the Open, losing to Venus Williams twice, and then Kim Clijsters and Chanda Rubin, all on hardcourts.

“It was a lot of trepidation about coming back, what would happen when I do come back,” Davenport said of all the thoughts that crossed her mind while on the mend. “Will I still win matches? Will I lose to players I wouldn’t have lost to before? Will I contend again? I think that I had a lot of doubts. To be able to go through this whole summer and really prove myself wrong with those (doubts) has been a big step.

“You know, anyone who has surgery, it’s a long road back. Certainly my road was no different from everybody else’s. When you’ve never done it before, at this point of your career, you’re definitely really scared.”

HEAD-TO-HEAD WITH SERENA WILL TEST HER
The semifinal against Serena Williams, the reigning French Open and Wimbledon champion, will be a real yardstick for Davenport in terms of where her game is at at this point in her comeback.

Not only does Davenport trail Serena 7-2 in their career meetings, but she’s lost to her the last three times they’ve played starting at the '00 Indian Wells tournament. Here at the Open, Williams won two of their three meetings, in the '99 semifinals en route to winning the title and in last year’s quarterfinals, while Davenport scored the victory in their '00 meeting.

“It’s a big match,” Davenport said of the upcoming engagement with Serena. “It’s a big situation. These are the moments where as a player you live for and need to play your best. It will be a good test. I can’t answer you if I’m really ready. I haven’t played this big a match in a year, probably.”

Davenport, who is looking in good fitness, will nonetheless have to kick it up at least a gear or two to have a chance against the red-hot Serena, who is without a doubt the best player currently in the game. And her older sis, Venus, the Open defending champion, is only just a step behind Serena in owning the game.

“They’ve proven over the last year that they are the two best players in the world,” said an honest Davenport, who made note that Serena has cut down on the amount of unforced errors she used to make. “The players, everyone is going to have to raise their level. If anyone else wants to get into that mix and really be talked about in the same breath as those two, you have to raise the level of your game and you have to do it at the big moments like the U.S. Open, like any Slam.

“They’ve been really, really tough in Grand Slams. It’s pretty amazing that out of the last four Grand Slams, they’ve played each other in the final three times. Not a lot of other players are obviously challenging them.”