Rosie Crews and the World Team Tennis crew hosted a conference call with Lindsay Davenport yesterday, regarding Lindsay's return to pro tennis. She will be representing the Newport Beach Breakers in a WTT match against the Sacramento Caps on Saturday night, July 21st. This, despite that fact that just six weeks ago Lindsay gave birth, via C-section and three weeks prematurely, to a baby boy that she and husband John Leach named Jagger (no, it has nothing to do with Mick or any of the other Rolling Stones).
Lindsay was always a moody, self-conscious girl - remember how, at the U.S. Open last year, she admitted that formally declaring a retirement, a la Andre Agassi, was something she simply could not imagine doing (because of the attention it would bring on her)? Good thing. If she had used the "R" word, it would make her current enthusiasm for playing again seem downright bizarre. I'm going to post the whole tele-conference transcript below, so you can judge her state of mind for yourself. To me, it sounds like all she needed to do was take a little break to drop a calf and, having dealt with that, she sees the world in a whole new light. It actually sounds like she's having fun hitting tennis balls.
Yet - at one point in the tele-conference, Lindsay was asked: At what point do you think you and John would be putting a racquet in his (Jagger's) hands?
She replied: "If it's up to me, at no time. I think probably another sport. But who knows. Whatever the kid wants to do, he'll obviously be able to do it."
Hmmmm . . . I take this to mean that Lindsay would rather that her son not play tennis (rather than that she would at no time be putting a racquet Jagger's hands, in an attempt to make him play). This is typical tennis-bashing by tennis players who, quite frankly, couldn't be kept away from the sport they purport to have come to loathe by a mule team. I don't mean to make a big deal out of it, but it's just one of those funny things you notice - when did a tennis player just come out and say: Yeah, I'd love it if my kid followed in my footsteps! This job is a piece of cake. Everybody kisses your butt, you make more money than God (about this, Lindsay especially knows!), and you never even have to make your own bed. Sure, losing blows. But you get over it. Duh! Of course I want my kid to be a tennis player!
Aw, fair enough. Let tennis players enjoy their moments of martyrdom. But it makes me wonder, what will happen when Champagne Kim Clijsters (just check her website for full details: I'm gettingmarriedandhatetennisandI'mdyingtohavekidsandIflovepuppies.com) has her first kid? Is she going to come rushing out of the hospital, still in her maternity gown with that frizzy blonde hair corkscrewing all over the place, screaming, "Get me Serena!"
I'd be all for that. And on that front, I have some advice for all you girls: There's no need to break off with tennis like the game was a former boyfriend - controlling, demanding, keeping you from being you - just because the guy whom you want to father your kids pops onto the radar. It's okay to still like tennis when you're about to get married and start a family; it isn't like, infidelity, or anything, comprende?
Lindsay is about to show you that you can have it both ways. So resist all that drama-queen stuff; stop all this soul-searching and phony-baloney agonizing. You can have it both ways and, come to think of it, if you're Lindsay or Champagne Kimmy you can probably have it three or four ways, at the same time. Because Lindsay and Kimmy are proven champs, each of them is capable of beating most of the women on tour tour not just after she's had a C-section, but probably while she's having one.
Oh, and less than a day after Lindsay announced that she's playing Team Tennis, I received an ecstatic email from Matt Van Tuinen, who is the PR guy for Pilot Pen Classic, a US Open tune-up tournament played in New Haven, Ct. Matt wrote:
Geez, Lindsay, you ask for a couple of wild cards and who knows, we could see you in the WTA Championships! You've got to love the enthusiasm here. I must say, the turnaround has caught me totally by surprise. Here's the entire transcript of her WTT conference call, which contains another first - a former No.1 player actually admitting that she/he watched recent tournaments and actually enjoyed the experience!
MEDIA NOTE: Just six weeks after giving birth to her first child, American tennis star Lindsay Davenport returns to the tennis courts for a WTT match. The July 21 match in Sacramento against the Caps’ rival, the Newport Beach Breakers, will also be Davenport’s first WTT match since 2003 when she played for the Breakers. This time around, Lindsay will be playing for the Sacramento Capitals.
ROSIE CREWS (WTT): We have Lindsay Davenport who is coming back to World TeamTennis. She's been busy the last six weeks taking care of little Jagger. She'll tell us about that. She's coming back to play World TeamTennis with Sacramento on Saturday night (July 21). This is the first time Lindsay is back in World TeamTennis since 2003. She actually started her WTT career with the Caps in '93. Let's take some questions for Lindsay.
Q. How are you feeling?
LD: I'm feeling great. Thank you so much.
Q. Tell me about when you started to play after the birth of your child? How many weeks did you sit out?
LD: You know, I had to have a cesarean section with him, so I was out not doing much the first two weeks obviously, then slowly just started to do some stuff about maybe when he was about two and a half weeks, just kind of getting more active on my doctor's permission.
You know, all of a sudden it's been things have healed really quickly. I felt really great. I've had a great recovery. So since about two and a half weeks, I've been pretty active, been able to practice now the last week at a very high percentage. Glad there were no complications.
Q. Did TeamTennis contact you about playing Saturday and why did you decide to play so soon after having a baby?
LD: Yeah, you know, Ilana (Kloss, WTT CEO/Commissioner) is a friend of mine. We have been obviously in contact through my pregnancy. She had asked me in May, Is there any way you would want to come back and play a TeamTennis match? You know, originally Jagger was not due until July 2nd, so I told her it probably wasn't going to be likely, knowing when the TeamTennis season was. But because of some complications we had with him, he actually came obviously three weeks early on June 10th.
I talked to her shortly after and said, I'm feeling great. You know, I think I'll be ready to do it. I looked at it really as kind of a fun challenge to see, you know, if I could come back so quickly and kind of get me a little kick in the pants to get back being active, you know, being healthy and all of that stuff.
Q. You talked to your doctor about it, I assume. What was his or her reaction?
LD: Yeah, fine. Normally you go in every four weeks for your post op. I see my doctor every week. My husband takes me there to make sure I'm totally doing well and following orders. Great. I mean, everything I've done has been with her permission. She's a friend of mine. Everything is totally healthy and fine
Q: The name Jagger, what is the story behind that?
LD: You know, it wasn't a big story. We like maybe not the most traditional names. It was a name that we had actually heard years ago. It was always kind of the name we wanted. It has nothing to do with the Rolling Stones, although people think that.
You know, it was just a name we gravitated towards. We did not know what we were having the whole pregnancy. For whatever reason, we thought we were having a girl. We were always really discussing girl names. When he came out, we found out it was a boy, we hadn't really discussed the possibility of anything other than a girl, so we went with the name that we had liked for the last few years.
Q. Considering his middle name as well, do you envision him being called J.J. at some point? [Say what?????]
LD: I don't know. We used to talk about if we had a son, you know, we always refer to him as Johnny Jr. while we were never going to call him Jonathan Jr. or whatever. But it was something fun we did. We call him Jagger, but we certainly don't care if people call him that.
Q. Should we take any signs from you playing World TeamTennis that we'll see you back on tour at some point?
LD: You know, I'm not sure. I mean, I never thought that I would, things changed so much. I never thought, first of all, I'd be coming back so soon. It's been so much fun kind of preparing for it. Just been hitting with my husband to get ready. It's been great, great getting back in shape.
I hope so. I haven't made any decisions, final decisions yet. But it's something kind of like a small goal in the back of my mind I'm working towards. You know, as it went in the later part of my pregnancy, I thought if I stay healthy, it would be just great to be able to come back and play some as a mother. Hopefully things continue to go well and that can be possible.
Q. What is the greatest challenge and greatest joy of being a mom? When you've come back before, when you've had layoffs, is the biggest challenge getting your timing or playing in front of crowds? What is it from a tennis perspective you'll be dealing with Saturday?
LD: Yeah, I mean, the first part of the question, the challenge I think for me is about trying to like balance everything. I totally understand now the working mom's guilt. If I go out and practice, I feel bad about leaving him. If I'm home trying to do stuff, I feel bad cleaning up the house or whatever. It's an interesting challenge there. We have a wonderful lady helping us, which wouldn't be possible, and I don't think I'd be as focused if I didn't have her.
But I think as far as me coming back, it's never too much been about playing crowds. It's sometimes in matches being able to play well at the right times. The other thing for me is, you know, it's not so much timing of hitting the ball, it's moving and timing of hitting of the ball. I mean, if it comes right down the middle, my timing's always been great. It's about what kind of steps to take, getting in position, really setting up for my shots.
Q: When you see someone like Bammer, who is a mother, be really successful, Venus not a mother but just winning Wimbledon, your contemporaries, does that inspire you at all to come back, or is it regardless of what anyone else does?
LD: You know, people bring up Bammer a lot to me. Probably a little different because I think her daughter's like I don't want to misspeak, but like six or something like that. I'm sure that's incredibly difficult.
For me right now I'm focusing on coming back just from the pregnancy and dealing with an infant. I'm not sure how it would be if he was five or six.
I think there's amazing women throughout the world that have done great things after having a baby. Gwen Stefani is a friend of mine. She balances it all just amazing and she's inspiring. My mom went back to work after she had all of us. Both my sisters work. You know, just about being around that, I feel like I want to be able to try to do it all, and that's obviously being a good mother and a good wife and having some kind of career again hopefully.
Q. You played Stanford quite often. What was the appeal to play that tournament for you? Now that San Diego isn't going to be in the mix, how challenging do you think it will be for that tournament to draw top players?
LD: Yeah, I loved Stanford. It was definitely one of my favorite tournaments. Coming from California, it was always really great. I always played there when healthy to start my summer season. I always thought the weather was great. The fans are great. A great atmosphere. I always wanted to go to college there. I don't know if that was part of it. I always thought it was a great, great tournament.
You know, I haven't seen the summer calendar. I know San Diego's off. I know Stanford falls before L.A. In the summer, I think it would still be a good time for them. It will be difficult next year with an Olympic year. I think all the tournaments, their dates get kind of played with a little bit.
I think the players that have played there have always loved going there and hopefully that will continue to be the case.
Q. I was talking to Lisa Leslie last week. She had her daughter a week or so before you did. She said she also had a C section. She went out to the ESPY Awards and it was the first time she had left the baby with her mom. She obviously was feeling a lot of the same things that you are being away from the baby, trying to tend to other things. Will you be bringing the baby up to Sacramento?
LD: Oh, yeah.
Q. How will you handle that?
LD: Yeah, I mean, there's no question. Whatever I decide to do, and if that's playing again, yeah, I mean, he's with me full time. That's part of being a mom and stuff. Yeah, the whole family's going to Sacramento, dad included.
Yeah, you just have to make it work. Obviously things get more challenging and in some cases more complicated. I'm hoping that he'll bring me even more joy on the road and a lot of fun. But obviously, you know, traveling, we just have to learn to make it work.
Q. At what point do you think you and John would be putting a racquet in his hands?
LD: If it's up to me, at no time. I think probably another sport. But who knows. Whatever the kid wants to do, he'll obviously be able to do it.
Q. What memories do you have when you debuted with the Capitals in '93, helped them win the league title in '97 and '98?
LD: I loved playing there. I remember at the time Ramey (Osborne) was the owner, had gone through my coach at the time Robert (Van’t Hoff) to get me to play. I was only 17 when I agreed to play. Had no idea what I was getting into with the whole season.
But absolutely loved it. Have always loved the concept. You know, I love being around like the team atmosphere and other players. Always really interesting when you get the men and women together working towards a common goal. But everyone in Sacramento was great. It always had the best crowds, tons of people always there.
I'm interested to see the new site where they're playing, be able to check that out. I haven't been back there since I guess '98 was the last year. I know I met a lot of great people up there, the people that all worked for the Capitals were great. New coach in Wayne Bryan for me. Look forward to playing with him on the bench.
Q. Have you watched any tennis in your time off?
LD: Yeah. I mean, the last few weeks I was not put on bed rest, but I was put on some rest. That was right when the French was going on, so I was watching that because there wasn't much else for me to do. You know, Jagger was born the Sunday, the finals of the French, then two weeks later is Wimbledon. Those two weeks you're not getting out all that much, so I got to watch Wimbledon, too. And you're up in the middle of the night, so that was fun.
Q. Did you find yourself missing it at that point?
LD: You know, it's funny because I've always enjoyed it. It was intriguing to watch it, especially kind of how more so for me Wimbledon than the French, how that played out.
