Lindsay Davenport (photo below) is a well-known American tennis player, television commentator and coach. Olympic gold holder (singles). This article will describe a brief biography of the athlete.
Meet Tennis
Lindsay Davenport (date of birth - June 8, 1976) is the youngest child in the family. The parents of the girl connected their life with volleyball. In the 1960s, his father played for the national team, and his mother headed the Southern California Regional Association.
The girl met tennis at the age of five. A little later, Lindsay entered school, and training had to be combined with training. It is worth noting that in this regard, Davenport differs from most of his colleagues in the workshop. The girl really graduated from school and received a certificate, and did not "pass" all exams externally. She came there by eight in the morning and studied until noon. And then Lindsay went to training, not listening to those who constantly stated that she would not succeed. And there were really a lot of them.
Carier start
While still in juniors, Lindsay Davenport was able to declare itself at the national and world level. In 1991, the girl won the national championship, and after twelve months she excelled at international competitions, getting into several Grand Slam finals and winning three titles. At that time, young Davenport continued to grow rapidly, which significantly affected her coordination of movements. But this did not stop the athlete from reaching the Roland Garros semifinal.
Transition to Professionals
1991 is the year when Lindsay Davenport first played in the WTA home tournament. Tennis has become the main profession of the girl. Of course, the performances were not perfect, but she was able to beat several athletes in the top 200. A year later, Lindsay continued to compete and gain rating points. By the end of May, the girl was in the second hundred classification and tried to qualify for the “Roland Garros”. And in the fall, a 16-year-old athlete played at the base of US OPEN. There, the tennis player defeated Yayuk Basuki (46th racket of the world).
1993 is the year when Lindsay Davenport has completely switched to professional competitions. Grand Slam tournaments have become a priority for her. Due to this, the athlete significantly added to the ranking. Sometimes her successes were explained by a feasible tournament grid, and sometimes by her own talent. So, in Indian Wells, the tennis player was able to defeat Brenda Schulz (30th racket of the planet). A week later, in Delray Beach, Lindsay beat Gabriela Sabatini, who was in fifth place in the rating. The quality of the results has grown so much that Davenport was able to enter and gain a foothold in the top 30. And in late May, the girl won the first title, beating Australian Nicole Provis in Swiss Lucerne. Seeing the progress of Lindsay, the coaching staff of the national team decided to engage a young compatriot in the Federation Cup. The athlete's performances were stable, and in the second half of the season she entered the top twenty qualifications.
1994-1997
A year later, Lindsay Davenport (the athlete's height is 189 centimeters) not only confirmed her results, but also significantly improved them. By the end of the season, the girl made it to the top 10 rating and won two titles. Lindsay also performed qualitatively at major tournaments: at the Grand Slam competitions, the athlete made it to the quarter finals twice, went to the semifinals of the grand prize in Miami, and also to the final of the Tour Final Championship in New York.
In 1995, the tennis player moderated her ardor a little, retreating into the second ten of the rating. Nevertheless, Davenport constantly worked to improve her own position. She corrected her shortcomings in the game through meetings with more experienced status rivals. Lindsay had some notable successes in the summer of 1996. The tennis player won the Olympic tournament in Atlanta, and then defeated Steffi Graf from the sixth attempt, who was at the time leading the rating. Then a slight lull came in the athlete’s career, and she could show a serious result only after twelve months. In the fall of 1997, the American won five matches at once at the US OPEN series. Also, the tennis player eight times reached the finals of large and medium tournaments, having won six titles. Thus, she reduced the gap between the leaders of the rating and finished the season on the third line.
1998-2000
A year later, Lindsay Davenport, whose personal life is described below, took the last steps to leadership in the ranking: she won two dozen matches at Grand Slam competitions. The tennis player was in great shape and was ready for the first final of the home tournament. Having beaten Venus Williams in the semifinals , the girl immediately “finished” with Martina Hingis, having won the title. However, the Swiss recouped at the end of the season, when Lindsay inflicted the second loss in her career in the final of the Tour Final Championship.
In general, the 1998 season was successful for the tennis player. Of the ten finals, she won six (three times against Martina Hingis). The next year, the balance of power remained virtually unchanged - the Swiss and the American again became the head of the rating. But this time, Martina was much more stable than Lindsay, ahead of her by a thousand credit points. However, Davenport spent a rather productive year. She has won seven titles. The most significant of them were: victory at Wimbledon (Lindsay defeated Steffi Graf, who ended her career after that) and the title at the Final tournament (the athlete “avenged” Hingis for last year’s defeat).
In 2000, the Swiss and the American continued the struggle for the first line of the rating. They replaced each other several times. However, Martina showed a more stable game and ended the season with a pretty solid advantage. Lindsay Davenport started the year well, winning titles at major tournaments in Indian Wells and Melbourne, but was unable to maintain the pace. Due to health problems, the girl missed almost the entire clay season (the tennis player managed to take part in only two tournaments and won only one match). In the future, Lindsay was able to return to previous results, but for medical reasons she again had to withdraw from major competitions (the Olympics in Sydney and the tournament in Canada). As a result, Davenport managed to reduce the gap from Hingis thanks to the finals at US OPEN and Wimbledon. The American finished the season on the second line of the rating.
2001-2003
The following year, the composition of the leading group of the world's leading players changed. Hingis significantly slowed down and left the first line by the end of October. And at the end of the year, Martina ended up in fourth place. Lindsay spent a very stable season, never giving way to rivals in the quarter finals. But the injuries caused the athlete to withdraw from the finals of the Final Competition. Due to the failures of past favorites, the American group Venus Williams and Jennifer Capriati were able to get to the leading group. For two, they took all four titles in Grand Slam tournaments. But according to the results of the calendar year, the athlete still regained the first place in the rating.
Injuries plagued Lindsay Davenport and got worse at the Munich competition. The tennis player had to leave for treatment. The girl returned to duty only in July 2002. The athlete quickly got into shape and managed to get into the four finals before the end of the season (though not one of them brought her the title), taking the twelfth line of the rating. Lindsay also played in the US OPEN semi-finals, but was unable to defeat qualification leader Serena Williams.
A year later, there were virtually no gaps in the competitive Davenport calendar. But the tennis player was periodically withdrawn from the matches for medical reasons. This significantly affected the process of form selection and the final results of the season (fifth place in qualification).
2004-2006
In 2004, Lindsay Davenport, whose personal life was periodically discussed in the media, was able to regain leadership in the ranking. The reason for this was the injuries of last year’s rivals (the sisters Williams, Claysters and Henin-Ardenne were treated), as well as the lack of stability of the new members of the leader group (several Russians who broke into the top played very unstably and lost precious points). As a result, Davenport quite successfully drafted her competitive calendar (she had to sacrifice even participation in the Olympics) and climbed to the first line of the rating in October. Gradually, Lindsay regained her former confidence, and she continued the winning streak, winning seven of the nine title matches. And at the Grand Slam competitions, the athlete showed the best result for the previous four years, but she managed to reach the semifinals only two times, and three times she lost to future champions.
A year later, Lindsay Davenport, general information about which is in any tennis encyclopedia, still led the rating. Only a few times the athlete lost the first line to Maria Sharapova. At the end of the season, Lindsay participated in ten finals and won six titles. For the first time in five years, two titles at the Grand Slam tournaments (at Wimbledon and Australia) were included in this list. There, the athlete lost in the decisive set, first to Serena, and then to Venus Williams. In the summer, Lindsay had health problems - back pain. For this reason, the girl missed several weeks. In 2006, things got even worse, and the tennis player left the protour for many months, missing the grassy and clay section of the calendar. Davenport returned to operation only in August and managed to play five competitions before the end of the season. Only in one of the tournaments did she manage to reach the finals (New Haven), but in the end she could not finish it due to severe pain in her shoulder.
Retirement
In early 2007, Davenport had to skip several months of speaking due to her pregnancy. In June, she gave birth to her first child - Jagger Jonathan. And in August, the tennis player returned to competitive activity. In the fall, Lindsay took part in three tournaments, earning two titles and losing once in the semifinals. In 2008, the athlete continued to compete, but various health problems again made themselves felt. In this regard, the American took a break in April and played only two tournaments until the end of the season - US OPEN and Wimbledon. After that, the tennis player actually ended her career.
Mixed Tournaments
From 1992 to 2010, Lindsay Davenport played fourteen Grand Slam competitions among mixed duets. Ten times the American got to the semifinals (of which five fell on the British series and five more on cooperation with Canadian tennis player Grant Connell). Closest to the title match, Davenport was at Wimbledon 1997. There, the athlete was the only time in her career to win the match at this stage.
Personal life
The heroine of this article has been married for over thirteen years. 2003 - this is the year of the wedding of Jonathan Leach (former tennis player) and Lindsay Davenport. Children were born in a newly minted family with an interval of several years. So, their first-born Jagger Jonathan was born in 2007, and his daughters - Lauren Andrews, Kaya Emory and Haven Michel - in 2009, 2012 and 2014.
Present
Numerous pauses during the final period of his career allowed Lindsay to regularly participate in tennis broadcasts as a commentator and expert. Over time, Davenport tried herself in another role: in 2014, Madison Keyes invited the former athlete to her own coaching team.