Q&A; WITH DAVENPORT

Former world No. 1 Lindsay Davenport plays in World Team Tennis for the first time since 2003 tonight, when she plays a home match for the Sacramento Capitals against the Newport Beach Breakers at 7.

Davenport, who won three Grand Slam singles titles, is playing her first WTT match since she played for the Breakers in ’03. Davenport, who is married to Rick Leach’s brother Jon, had her first child, Jagger, last month in Newport Beach.

She recently answered questions during a media conference call.

Question: Tell me about when you started to play after the birth of your child? How many weeks did you sit out?

Answer: You know, 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.

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. Glad there were no complications.

Q: At what point do you think you and Jon would be putting a racquet in his hands?

A: If it’s up to me, at no time. I think probably another sport. But who knows. Whatever the kid wants to do, he’ll obviously be able to do it.

Q: Did Team Tennis contact you about playing Saturday and why did you decide to play so soon after having a baby?

A: Yeah, you know, Ilana (Kloss, WTT CEO/Commissioner) is a friend of mine. We have been obviously in contact through my pregnancy. She had asked me in May, is there any way you would want to come back and play a Team Tennis match?

You know, originally Jagger was not due until July 2, so I told her it probably wasn’t going to be likely, knowing when the Team Tennis season was. But because of some complications we had with him, he actually came obviously three weeks early on June 10.

I talked to her shortly after and said, ‘I’m feeling great. You know, I think I’ll be ready to do it.’ I looked at it really as kind of a fun challenge to see, you know, if I could come back so quickly and kind of get me a little kick in the pants to get back being active, you know, being healthy and all of that stuff.

— Matt Szabo