Former World No. 1 Lindsay Davenport of the USA announced last week that she would be coming out of retirement to play in two WTA Tour events.
She’ll be playing in the Bank of the West Classic at Stanford University in the final week of July, and the Mercury Insurance Open in La Costa, California in August.
At age 34, Davenport hasn’t played in a tournament since the 2008 U.S. Open and claims that she’s not coming back, just playing for fun. She stated:
Excited to play some dubs this summer at 2 tourneys..Stanford and La Costa. But I’m not coming back! Just playing those 2 in CA for fun!!
So it was a surprise to find out that she will be playing again on the grass in England. Bob Bryan sent out a tweet announcing that he and Lindsay would be playing mixed doubles at Wimbledon. His tweet:
Happy to report that @LDavenport76 will be carrying me in the mixed doubles at Wimbledon.
Lindsay will be playing doubles with American Liezel Huber at both of the California events. Lindsay and Liezel reached the quarterfinals at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Lindsay reached the World No. 1 ranking on October 12, 1998, and was also ranked No. 1 in doubles on October 20, 1997. She is a three-time Grand Slam champion, winning the Australian Open in 2000, Wimbledon in 1999, and the U.S. Open in 1998.
In 2005, TENNIS Magazine ranked her as the 29th-best player of the preceding forty years. She is one of only four women since 1975 who has been the year-end World No. 1 at least four times, the others being Steffi Graf, Martina Navratilova, and Chris Evert. Lindsay finished 1998, 2001, 2004, and 2005 as the top ranked player.