Athletes - Lindsay Davenport

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	Athletes - Lindsay Davenport

Lindsay Ann Davenport (born June 8, 1976 in Palos Verdes, California) is an American professional female tennis player. She has won three Grand Slam tournaments: the 1998 U.S. Open, 1999 Wimbledon, and the 2000 Australian Open. She also won the Olympic gold medal in 1996. Davenport was ranked as a #1 women singles and doubles player several times between 1998 and 2001, and twice again in 2004. She has been ranked number one throughout the 2005 season. She was the year-end #1 player in 1998, 2001, 2004, and 2005. Only 3 other women have finished number 1 at least four times since the computer singles ranking was established in 1975; Steffi Graf (eight times), Martina Navratilova (seven) and Chris Evert (six). Her father, Wink Davenport, was a member of the US Olympic volleyball team in 1968.

Style

Her game is built largely around her groundstrokes, which are considered to be among the most cleanly-struck in women's tennis. Lack of court speed is perhaps her greatest weakness, partly because of her size; at slightly over 6 ft 2 in (1.89 m), she is one of the tallest women ever to play top-level tennis. However, she has worked to overcome this by losing weight, overhauling her conditioning program, and 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 amongst the tennis press, and thus much of the tennis-watching public, of being thoughtful, polite, and balanced, unlike some of her contemporaries. She is also known among fans and subject experts to be a good autograph signer. However, her relative lack of "charisma" (or, more likely, her "less glamorous" appearance than some others on the tour, though she is not by any means unattractive) has resulted in less attention being paid her than some contemporaries with inferior results (see Anna Kournikova).

Personal life

Davenport married investment banker and former All-American footballer Jon Leach, brother of tennis player Rick Leach, in 2003.

Her sisters Leiann and Shannon also reside in Southern California. Her aunt, uncle, and cousins live in San Luis Obispo.

Career

Lindsay had an excellent year in 2004. She won a tour-high seven titles including four straight during the summer (Stanford, Los Angeles, San Diego and Cincinnati), and posted the most match wins on the WTA with 63. She finished the year ranked Number 1 for the third time in her career.

Her success continued into 2005 when she made her first Grand Slam final, at the Australian Open, since the US Open in 2000. Unfortunately for Davenport, she also reached the finals of the women's doubles--playing with close friend Corina Morariu--and apparently collapsed under the weight of exhaustion after playing a lot of long singles and doubles matches in the Aussie summer heat. She faded away from a set-and-a-break lead in the final, falling to Serena Williams in a 3-setter.

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 ever lost 0-6 0-6.

Davenport bypassed the European clay-court warm-up season and went to the French Open without having played a professional competitive match for some weeks. She confounded expectations with a run through to the quarter-finals on her least favourite surface after four tough three-set matches, including a thrilling come-from-behind win against Kim Clijsters. 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 by Kim Clijsters again, but she came through in three sets to win her second successive match against the rejuvenated Belgian. Davenport then sailed to the semi-finals, where her match against Amelie 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. The thrilling epic found Davenport leading most of the way including holding one match point at 5-4 final set.

Williams went on to win 4-6 7-6 9-7 in the longest and possibly one of the most dramatic Wimbledon finals in history. In that match, Davenport sustained a serious back injury while leading 4-2 40-15 in the final set. The injury forced her to withdraw from Fed Cup competition. Davenport 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.

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Athletes - Lindsay Davenport

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