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Lindsay Davenport recently spoke up about how Monica Seles and Jennifer Capriati inspired her to commit herself to tennis. Davenport made her WTA Tour-level debut in 1993, and she went on to establish herself as a World No. 1 spanning both women's singles and doubles tennis. She won six Major titles across both categories and also clinched the Olympic women's singles gold medal in 1996.
Davenport, who bid farewell to her stellar tennis-playing career in 2010, recently featured as a guest on The Pure Athlete Podcast. Here, the American remembered Monica Seles and Jennifer Capriati's respective breakthroughs on the tour. Recalling how Seles stepped up at a tender age to challenge the dominance of Steffi Graf, Davenport said:
"Monica Seles, like, came through. And all of a sudden, here was this player that was able to bash the ball on both sides, that kind of had this fearless attitude at a young age, taking on Steffi Graf.Like, I couldn't believe it. And she was only a couple of years older than I was, and she was achieving, like, amazing things." (from 26:44)
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The 49-year-old subsequently brought up the mercurial rise of her compatriot Capriati, who was the same age as her. According to Lindsay Davenport, both Monica Seles and Jennifer Capriati gave her the 'hope and drive' of carving out a successful career in professional tennis for herself.
"And then, believe it or not, it was Jennifer Capriati. We were exactly the same age. We played exactly one junior tournament together, and that was it. She got so good, so fast. And here I was watching a 14-year-old who was exactly my age go out there and start dominating women's tennis. Like, those two players gave me the hope and the... I want to say the drive also, like, okay, maybe I can do this, right?"
Lindsay Davenport once hailed American ATP legend for making tennis "cool"
Way back in 2006, in the aftermath of Andre Agassi's emotional retirement from tennis at the US Open, Lindsay Davenport spoke up about the profound impact the ATP legend had on tennis. According to Davenport, the way Agassi carried himself both on and off the court did wonders in terms of making tennis popular among younger audiences at the time.
"I think in the last 20 years, he’s been the most important person we’ve had in our sport. I think Billie Jean King made huge inroads for women, but Andre made our sport cool, popular with the younger crowd, exciting. He's beloved. Not many players become what he has become. You know that he is going to be equally famous and equally successful in his post career," she said.
Lindsay Davenport currently serves as the captain of the USA's Billie Jean King Cup team. Earlier this year, she led Team USA to the final of the prestigious women's international team tennis event, but had to settle for second-best as Italy emerged triumphant.
