Davenport was ranked as the #1 women singles and doubles player several times between 1998 and 2001. She returned to the number one ranking in singles during the latter part of the 2004 season, remaining there throughout most of the 2005 season (being briefly overtaken by Maria Sharapova for seven weeks). She was the year-end #1 player in 1998, 2001, 2004, and 2005. Only three other women have finished #1 at least four times since the computer singles rankings were established in 1975: Steffi Graf (eight times), Martina Navratilova (seven times), and Chris Evert (six times).
She announced at the end of the 2005 season that she would play fewer events in 2006. As a result of this schedule, and a lower back injury, her ranking fell to #25, marking the first time since the computer singles rankings were established in 1975 that no American has been ranked in the top 10.
Contents
1Playing style
2Reputation
3Personal life
4Career
5Awards and accomplishments
6Grand Slam singles finals
6.1Wins (3)
6.2Runner-ups (4)
7Titles
7.1Singles
7.2Doubles
8Singles performance timeline
9See also
10References
11External links
Playing style
Her game is built largely around her groundstrokes, service return, and serve, which are considered to be among the most powerful and cleanly struck in the history of women's tennis. Lack of court speed is perhaps her greatest weakness, mainly because of her size. At slightly over 6 ft 2 in (1.89 m), she is the tallest woman ever to win a Grand Slam singles title. However, she has worked to overcome this by losing weight, overhauling her conditioning program, and by becoming mentally stronger. She is an advocate for the mental game, as evidenced by her comments on the cover of "Smart Tennis: How to Play and Win the Mental Game."
Reputation
She has a reputation among the tennis media and much of the tennis watching public of being thoughtful, polite, and balanced. She is also known among fans and tennis experts to be a good autograph signer.
In 2003, she married investment banker and former All-American tennis player Jon Leach, brother of tennis player Rick Leach.
The couple announced on December 13, 2006, that Davenport was pregnant and that the baby is due June 2007.[1][2] Davenport has no plans to play again.[3][4]
Career
In 2004, Davenport won a tour-high seven titles, including four straight during the summer (Stanford, Los Angeles, San Diego, and Cincinnati). She also had the most match wins on the WTA tour, with 63. She finished the year ranked first for the third time in her career.
Davenport preparing to return a volley at the 2004 Wimbledon.
Her success continued into 2005 when she reached her first Grand Slam final, at the Australian Open, since the U.S. Open in 2000. Unfortunately for Davenport, she lost a one set lead in the final, falling to Serena Williams in three sets.
At a tournament in Indian Wells, California in March, Davenport made history by defeating world number three Maria Sharapova 6-0, 6-0. It marked the first time that a player ranked in the top three had ever been "shut out" on the WTA tour and was also the first time Sharapova had failed to win a game during a match.
Davenport bypassed the European clay court season and went to the 2005 French Open without having played a professional competitive match for weeks. She confounded expectations with a run to the quarterfinals on her least favourite surface after four three-set matches, including coming-from-behind to win against Kim Clijsters in the fourth round. Davenport lost to eventual runner-up Mary Pierce but returned for Wimbledon as the top seed.
She easily made it to the fourth round, where she was tested again by Clijsters but came through in three sets to win her second successive match against the Belgian. Davenport then reached the semifinals, where her match against Amélie Mauresmo was interrupted by rain and was completed over the course of two days. Davenport eventually defeated Mauresmo 6-7, 7-6, 6-4 and faced 14th seeded Venus Williams in an all-American final. Davenport lead most of the way, including having a match point at 5-4 in the final set. Williams went on to win 4-6, 7-6, 9-7 in the longest (in terms of time) Wimbledon final in history. In that match, Davenport sustained a serious back injury while leading 4-2 (40-15) in the final set, although she acknowledged after the match that the injury did not cause her defeat and that Williams was the superior player on the day. The injury forced Davenport to withdraw from Fed Cup competition. She returned to the tour in Palo Alto, California. After reinjuring her back in a warmup just hours before her match, Davenport retired while trailing 5-0 in the first set. This back injury then forced her to withdraw from other hardcourt events in Carlsbad and Los Angeles.
Davenport returned to the WTA Tour in August, winning her comeback tournament in New Haven, Connecticut without dropping a set. Davenport then reached the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open, where she held a match point on Elena Dementieva before falling 7-6(6) in the third set. Davenport briefly lost the #1 ranking following the event.
Davenport preparing to return serve at the 2006 US Open.
After the loss at the U.S. Open, Davenport captured the title in Bali without dropping a set and subsequently qualified for the WTA Tour Championships. She then won the title in Filderstadt, Germany, defeating Mauresmo in the final for the second year in a row. The win made her only the tenth woman ever to win 50 career WTA singles titles.
In Zurich, Davenport defeated Daniela Hantuchova 3-6, 7-5, 6-2, saving two match points. By winning the match, Davenport was assured of recapturing the World No.1 ranking from Maria Sharapova the following week. In subsequent matches, she inched past Francesca Schiavone 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 and defeated seventh seed Anastasia Myskina 6-0, 6-4 to reach her sixth Zurich final in as many visits and set up a rematch of the 2002 final with Swiss Patty Schnyder. Davenport overcame the sixth seed 7-6(5), 6-3 for her fourth title at Zurich and her sixth title of 2005, second only to Clijsters' nine. It was also the first time Davenport had saved match points en route to a victory since the 1999 U.S. Open. The Zurich Open victory left her with eleven Tier I titles, second among active players.
Davenport was a semifinalist at the WTA tour year-ending championships (losing to Mary Pierce 7-6, 7-6), which ensured that she finished the year ranked No. 1. 2005 was the fourth time that Davenport ended the year ranked No. 1, joining Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova, Steffi Graf, and Monica Seles as the only female players to end a season ranked first at least four times.
On February 22, 2006, Davenport became just the eighth woman in WTA history to win 700 singles matches, when she handed out her fourth career "double bagel," defeating Elena Likhovtseva 6-0, 6-0 in the second round of the Dubai Duty Free Women's Open.
Davenport was absent from the court from March 2006, when she was defeated in the fourth round of Indian Wells by Martina Hingis 6-3, 1-6, 6-2, until August 2006 with a back injury. She returned in Los Angeles, losing to Samantha Stosur 6-7, 6-4, 6-3 in the second round (having received a first round bye). It was Davenport's earliest exit from a tournament since early 2003. Davenport attributed the loss to her having resumed training only three weeks prior to the start of the tournament. Davenport has re-hired Adam Pieterson as her coach, with whom she worked during her 2004-05 resurgence.
After the loss in Los Angeles, Davenport returned to the Pilot Pen Tournament in New Haven, defeating Katarina Srebotnik and Schiavone in her first two matches. Davenport then faced world #1 Mauresmo in the quarterfinals, posting a 6-4, 7-5 victory. In the semifinals, Davenport defeated Stosur (who had beaten Davenport in Los Angeles) 7-6, 7-6. Davenport was forced to retire with a right shoulder injury while playing Justine Henin-Hardenne in the final.
Despite injury concerns, Davenport reached the 2006 U.S. Open quarterfinals where she again lost to Henin-Hardenne, 6-4, 6-4.
Awards and accomplishments
Named in 1993 the Rookie of the Year by both Tennis Magazine and World Team Tennis.
Named the U.S. Olympic Committee's female athlete of the month for July 1999 after winning the women's doubles and singles at Wimbledon.
Voted by journalists at the 2000 French Open as the winner of the Prix Orange, which goes to the player who has shone in the tennis world the international essence of fairness, kindness, availability, and friendliness.
Re-elected to the WTA player council in 2002.
Voted by the International Tennis Writers Association as a joint winner of the 2004 women's Ambassador for Tennis award.
(w/ Raymond) - Indian Wells, Amelia Island, Eastbourne
2002 (1)
(w/ Raymond) - Filderstadt
2001 (2)
(w/ Raymond) - Filderstadt, Zürich
2000 (1)
(w/ Morariu) - Indian Wells
1999 (4)
(w/ Morariu) - Wimbledon, Stanford, San Diego
(w/ Zvereva) - Tokyo [Pan Pacific]
1998 (6)
(w/ Zvereva) - WTA Tour Championships, Indian Wells, Berlin, Stanford, San Diego, Filderstadt
1997 (7)
(w/ Novotna) - US Open, WTA Tour Championships, Amelia Island, Berlin
(w/ Zvereva) - Tokyo [Pan Pacific], Indian Wells
(w/ Hingis) - Stanford
1996 (5)
(w/ MJ.Fernandez) - Roland Garros, WTA Tour Championships, Sydney, Oakland
(w/ Zvereva) - Los Angeles
1995 (4)
(w/ Novotna) - Sydney
(w/ Raymond) - Indian Wells
(w/ MJ.Fernandez) - Strasbourg, Tokyo [Nichirei]
1994 (2)
(w/ Raymond) - Indian Wells
(w/ Sánchez-Vicario) - Oakland
Singles performance timeline
To prevent confusion and double counting, information in this table is updated only once a tournament or the player's participation in the tournament has concluded. This table is current through the Pacific Life Open in Indian Wells, California, which ended on March 18, 2007.
