NEW YORK: Among the world’s top 300 players there are just three mothers that play on the international tennis circuit, the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour; Sybille Bammer of Austria, Rossana de Los Rios from Paraguay and the most famous of the trio - Lindsay Davenport.
Barely two months after her son Jagger was born on 10th June 2007, Davenport was playing her first event, the Pilot Pen Tennis in New Haven, Connecticut, in the doubles with her close friend Lisa Raymond. They lost in the first round but if there was ever a doubt in her mind about returning to the courts, they were swiftly removed.
The competitive drive was still very much there. She wanted to be out there on the tour again and one thing that was her focus was the Olympic Games. Having won a gold medal in the singles in Atlanta in 1996, she used the 29th Olympiad as her additional motivation.
Lindsay’s return has been a huge hit with the women on the tour. She’s quite happy about it as well because she has some ready made baby sitters. When she has a match or has to practice there’s no shortage of people to look after Jagger who really is a good baby and a good traveller, having sat across the aisle from them on a flight from Los Angeles to Miami earlier this year.
She is rarely separated from him. A couple of exceptions were when she went to London early to prepare for Wimbledon but her husband Jon arrived a week later with the baby, and then during the Olympic Games there was some more daddy and baby time because she didn’t take him to Beijing.
In fact in Beijing for the better part of her stay she shared an apartment with James Blake in the Athletes Village. In a social conversation I had asked James who snored. He didn’t go there but said he couldn’t understand why Lindsay had the bedroom with the en suite: “Just because she’s a woman … and a mother?” he said laughing.
It was something I put to Lindsay a few days later and she was amused suggesting the whole story had not been told.
“I had to take that room because the first couple of nights I found it hard to sleep; James must go to the bathroom ten times a night,” she said.
After the Games she flew straight to New York deciding not to go home to California first because quite possibly she “might not get back on another plane”. She’s fine because Jagger met her in New York, coming across the country with a nanny and his grandmother, Lindsay’s mother Ann.
The baby relaxes her. He’s with her right up to the time a match is called and as soon as she walks off the court. This is her first US Open since 2006 and she believes now that she should be matching it with the current best.
“I still look at it as this is where I should be if I'm healthy and can play halfway decent, I feel like I can still be successful,” said Davenport. “I'm obviously probably more excited than maybe I used to be by getting to the third round, but I feel when I'm in a tournament and I'm competing and I'm healthy, that I should be winning some of these matches. So I'm happy to be in the third round, but I'm still looking for more.”
This year is the tenth anniversary of her winning the US Open. It’s not something she thinks of but says winning the title is a bit of a blur. She remembers beating Venus Williams the days before to reach her first Grand Slam final and then trying to calm her nerves, but overall she remembers “feeling calm and serene the whole two weeks, like I thought I could do it”.
Playing now though is different for Davenport. She’s amused that she has a different fan base, the mother’s clubs and she’s delighted with the amount of support she has received. She feels it’s allowed women who are inspired to have kids to still be able to do what they love, still she doesn’t feel she is a trailblazer.
Still she feels amazed at herself that she is still out there.
“I tell myself to enjoy it, because who would have thought that I would be back out there, and, you know, get another opportunity to play on that court in front of the fans and, you know, still be around here at the US Open,” said Davenport who has won more money on-court than any other women athlete.
“It kind of freaks me out when they say my 17th time or 17 years or whatever. That's a little overwhelming.”
She is appreciating her tennis life a bit more now as well and doesn’t know how much longer she will be swinging that racquet.
“So much of me coming back has been based on, let's play through this summer and the US Open, and, you know, those are the goals,” she said. “To be honest, I think we're a little scared to talk about what happens after here, just because this has been such a focal point of my whole comeback. So we haven't really decided. It's kind of like an unspoken thing hanging behind my husband and I.
“So right now I'm just focusing, I'm trying to play here and it kind of will work itself out in the future. Obviously getting a little more difficult as my son gets older, and more mobile and, you know, it's tougher to make the kids travel. You know, if I do continue playing, it will be on a part time basis.”
