| By
Sandra Harwitt
Once upon a time, not very long ago, Lindsay Davenport was
the queen of women’s tennis.
There was the world No. 1 ranking that belonged to Damsel
Davenport on a number of occasions between 1998 and 2001,
including the prestige of ending the 1998 and 2001 seasons
sitting comfortably on the throne. There have been 38 career
titles, highlighted by the notable possession of the 1996
Olympic gold medal as well as the 1998 U.S. Open, 1999 Wimbledon
and 2000 Australian Open.
Although there were no highly sought—after Grand Slam
award-winning moments in 2001, Davenport did score a tour-leading
seven trophies for the season. She finished the year with
a three-tournament, 15-match winning streak at Fielderstadt,
Zurich and Linz that not only equaled her results from 1999,
but rivaled a similar feat by Martina Navratilova in 1988.
But
even before year's end in 2001, an untimely right knee injury
had started to take its toll on Davenport, keeping her off
the court in April and May. Playing the 2001 WTA Tour Championships
in November turned out to be costly for the Southern Californian,
who re-injured her knee during a long three—set semifinal
victory over Belgian Kim Clijsters, forcing her to forego
playing the final against Serena Williams. On January 11,
2002, while her peers headed off Down Under to compete at
the Australian Open, Davenport underwent arthroscopic surgery
to correct a full thickness cartilage defect in her knee,
leaving her on crutches for nine weeks and facing six months
of extensive rehabilitative therapy. Rejoining the tour
in July of last year, Davenport admits it took quite a while
for that old Lindsay tennis magic to reemerge.
Finally
feeling good about the state of her game this year, Davenport
is back to winning form. She captured her first title since
October 2001 at the Pan Pacific (Tokyo) tournament in February
and secured final appointments at Sydney in January, Indian
Wells in March and Amelia Island in April.
Nowadays, contentment comes not only with a return to competitive
form, but in her recent marriage on April 25th to investment
banker and former USC All-American, Jon Leach.
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