TENNIS: Some time ago a tabloid reporter, who worked in Britain, wrote a story about Lindsay Davenport every day at Wimbledon just to see if it would make the final edition of the paper.
The reporter did not succeed in the clandestine mission to get the American some red-top publicity. There were too many other fish to fry: streakers, teen glam, the blizzard of British no-hopers that come and go over the first four days of the tournament.
Davenport, now the world number one, failed to make the tabloid grade.
It says a number of things about tabloid mentality and what "blings" in tennis. Davenport, who had an almost effortless, 6-0, 6-2 win yesterday over Alina Jidkova, is enjoying a sort of second coming in her career. But her image as an intelligent and articulate Grand Slam winner has never been as appreciated over the last five years as Maria Sharapova has over the one year since she won Wimbledon.
Yesterday Davenport - who has no perfume named after her, does not design her outfits and is not a global brand - was in no mood to be downbeat. Last time the 29-year-old was at Wimbledon she spoke about retirement and the closing of the athletic phase of her life. No more, and she doesn't care about the media slights or the superficial character of her sport.
"I'm still out playing because I'm enjoying it. I had a wonderful ride last 12 months after leaving here," she said. "Never would have expected the way things turned out. The ultimate goal is to win another Slam. I still feel like I'm knocking on the door of making that happen.
"Hard to walk away when you feel like you could achieve the ultimate goal in tennis. While I still feel I have that ability, I'm going to stick around."
With almost $20 million banked from prize-money won, Davenport is not sticking around just for the cash, and against an opponent just a year younger but $19 million poorer, there was little to be drawn from the win.
One of several seeds to go through, including Amelie Mauresmo, 2004 French Open winner Anastasia Myskina and Kim Clijsters, it was a day without seismic shifts in the draw. The predictability of just two out of the five British players advancing into the second round merely polished the idea that the status quo was largely intact after day one.
While Davenport, Clijsters and Mauresmo won with imperious ease, Myskina stuttered through her match nursing an injured right shoulder. The young Russian has been having a difficult time of it over the last few months.
Her mother has been diagnosed with cancer and injury has plagued her game. A trainer arrived on court after she had dropped the first set 5-7, before rallying 7-6 (7-4), 6-4 over two hours and 30 minutes. Whether the shoulder survives this week is another thing.
Clijsters, though, continued to impress. Winning 6-2, 6-3 against Britain's Katie O'Brien, the resurgent Belgian is working hard to get back to where she was earlier this year, when she won two WTA tour events. Moving well after a knee injury hampered her running at the French Open, Clijsters has been quietly building her form and fitness.
"I still feel there is a lot of improvement to do if I want to get back to the level I was playing at Indian Wells and Miami. Today was not easy," she said after finishing off O'Brien in 50 minutes and arriving to her press conference talking and looking as though there is at least another 10 days in her legs.
Maybe, too, it wasn't easy, but she, like Davenport, certainly made it look that way.
SELECTED MATCHES
Centre Court (1pm): N Llagostera Vives (Spa) v (2) M Sharapova (Rus), (6) Tim Henman (Brit) v J Nieminen (Fin), V Spadea (US) v (4) R Nadal (Spa).
Court One (1pm): J Vanek (Cze) v (2) A Roddick (US), (7) J Henin-Hardenne (Bel) v E Daniilidou (Gre), M Llodra (Fra) v (9) S Grosjean (Fra).
Court Two (noon): A Murray (Brit) v G Bastl (Swi), (14) V Williams (USA) v E Birnerova (Cze), (27) R Gasquet (Fra) v P Kohlschreiber (Ger), A Haynes (US) v (4) S Williams (US).
Court Three (noon): (15) G Coria (Arg) v T Behrend (Ger), (12) L Davenport (US), C Morariu (US) v J Jankovic (Ser), J Kostanic (Cro), (19) T Haas (Ger) v J Tipsarevic (Ser), (29) M Bartoli (Fra) v R Fujiwara (Jpn).
Court Four (noon): S Wawrinka (Swi) v F Santoro (Fra), (8) N Petrova (Rus) v V Ruano Pascual (Spa), J O'Donoghue (Gbr) v A-Lena Groenefeld (Ger).
Court Five (noon): (14) R Stepanek (Cze) v R Ginepri (US), C Martinez (Spa) v K Bondarenko (Ukr).
Court Six (noon): Y-Jeong Cho (Kor) v A Parra Santonja (Spa).
Court Seven (noon): A Calatrava (Spa) v T Ketola (Fin).
Court Eight (noon): P Wessels (Ned) v (28) J Novak (Cze).
Court 13: Bohdan Ulihrach (Cze) v (12) Thomas Johansson (Swe), Lucie Safarova (Cze) v (12) Mary Pierce (Fra).
On Television
TG4 (12.0), BBC 2 (12.0), BBC 1 (1.40)
