Posted by Peter Bodo, TENNIS.com
Every once in a while, a tennis player goes against the grain and does something refreshingly out of character -- like admit that he or she actually loves playing the game.
We had one of those moments just the other day, when Lindsay Davenport announced that she was going to return to the tour to play doubles at the Pilot Pen Classic, the U.S. Open tune-up tournament played in New Haven. This, just six weeks after having her first child with husband John Leach, a boy whom the couple named Jagger (this had nothing to do with Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones, something Lindsay is going to have to explain, oh, 14 or 15 times a day for about the next 25 years).
It seems that Lindsay realized that despite saying all the usual negative, bummed-out tennis player things about what a dog-eat-dog, demanding, all-consuming profession she chose, despite having expressed horror at the very idea of drawing attention to herself with a "farewell tour" last year," she woke up five weeks after undergoing a C-section delivery, with a baby by her side, thinking, "I … I … I actually miss tennis!"
In a conference call to promote her upcoming appearance as a World Team Tennis player (Newport Beach Breakers), Lindsay was asked if she might give the WTA Tour another shot. Her answer showed that she's as baffled as anyone by this turn of events: "You know, I'm not sure … I mean … I never thought that I would -- things changed so much. I never thought, first of all, that I'd be coming back so soon. It's been so much fun kind of preparing for it … it's been great -- great! -- getting back in shape."
And note than less than 24 hours after throwing in with the Breakers, New Haven announced that Lindsay will be playing there in August. By this time tomorrow, she may be announcing that she's asked for a wild card into the U.S. Open.
This sudden surge of enthusiasm doesn't automatically come with giving birth and all the life-affirming garbagio tied to it (just ask Steffi Graf, who's got two kids now with a tennis-nut husband named Andre, yet the very word tennis brings a wince of pain to her face). In Lindsay's case, it seems like marriage and childbirth have been a combination of reality check and motivational experience. Life is good, who woulda thunk it? Certainly not Lindsay, who spent so much of her career down on herself, moping around.
Beyond that, this couldn't have come at a better time for American tennis and the U.S. Open Series, which is just getting underway. Although Venus and Serena Williams are playing well again, the U.S. men are, with the exception of Andy Roddick, struggling to stay on the radar. American tennis needs all the help it can get, and Lindsay could bring a lot of it.
I'll bet you thought I was kidding about the wild card.
