Lindsay Davenport Weighs Options, May Consider a Tennis Comeback
Posted by Aaress Lawless on Jul 17, 2007 | Print |
When Lindsay Davenport announced that she was pregnant with her first child toward the end of last season, she said that could not ever imagine playing professional tennis on the WTA Tour again.
Barely six months later, the former world number one is thinking about dusting off her racquets, packing Jagger’s diaper bag, and hitting the courts once again.
Davenport, who will play her first unofficial match on Saturday for the Sacramento Capitals since having her son last month, has admitted that she may be considering a return to professional tennis.
She participated in a conference call today and said that she is interested in possibly competing for the United States at the 2008 Olympics, which will be staged in Beijing.
“The thing that intrigues me is the Olympics and trying to go back as a mother,” said Davenport.
Mothers on the WTA Tour are rare, but not unprecedented. The most famous Mommy was the legendary Evonne Goolagong Cawley, who won the 1980 Wimbledon ladies title, three years after giving birth to her daughter Kelly. At this moment, the most successful mother on Tour is Austria’s Sybille Bammer, who reached the semifinals of Indian Wells and the fourth round at Roland Garros earlier this year.
Ironically, people have been bringing up Bammer’s name to Lindsay as she weighs her comeback options.
“People bring up Bammer a lot to me,” added Lindsay. “[Bammer’s situation is] 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.”
Given the fact that Lindsay has not officially retired in writing, she is still eligible to compete on the WTA Tour. Currently, she is ranked outside of the top 50 at No. 68, but will see her ranking fall after her finalist points at New Haven and her quarterfinal points at the US Open from last season come off.
Her recovery from giving birth via cesarean section has gone well and Lindsay has been able to be active and practice.
“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,” said Davenport.
“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.”
Still, Lindsay has not made an official decision to return.
Yet.
“I haven’t made any decisions, final decisions yet,” reminded Davenport. “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.”
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