ZURICH - Lindsay Davenport can regain the world No 1 tennis spot by beating Slovak Daniela Hantuchova in the second round of the Zurich Open on Thursday.
The 29-year-old American, however, would rather be at home than chasing ranking points in Europe.
"I'm better off at home with my family
and my husband than being in Europe for three weeks at this age and at this stage of my career," Davenport said.
"I'm not playing for the ranking or I would play every single tournament. I play because I enjoy it and want to do more but my husband and marriage is my priority and being away for three weeks is not something I'm willing to do right now."
If third-placed Davenport fails to beat Hantuchova, who reached the second round with a 1-6 7-5 6-4 win over Japan's Ai Sugiyama on Tuesday, second-placed Belgian Kim Clijsters will return to top spot in next week's rankings.
World No 1 Maria Sharapova is not defending the ranking points she received by reaching the Zurich final last year.
After winning the Filderstadt title in Germany on Oct. 9, Davenport made a brief visit back to California before returning to Europe to compete at the US$1.3 million ($1.9 million) event here.
The three-times former champion believes she has an advantage over many of her tiring opponents as the season winds down.
"That quite often has been the case," Davenport said.
"There's no question there's a lot of physical and mental energy that's missing at this time of the year.
"It's been a long year for everybody. But I typically play well indoors and in the past have done very well in the autumn so hopefully that'll be the case again.
"There's no question this is the toughest time of year to play but I'm personally lucky it is indoors. I think some of the points go a little bit faster and it's easier for me to serve well." Having come close to retiring in 2004, Davenport draws enormous satisfaction from having reached two grand slam finals this year, at the Australian Open and Wimbledon.
She said her defeat by Venus Williams at Wimbledon was her best and worst experience of the year.
"I'm happy with the way the year went," she said.
"I did everything I could to win the grand slams.
"It didn't happen but I feel I rebounded well from that and I'm still going strong.
"Wimbledon was an amazing, amazing experience, to be part of a final like that. I remember the crowd just being incredible at the end and even when I lost they were so supportive of me.
"Obviously it's tough to lose a match like that and be so close and have it mean so much but not happen.
"But I look back at that, and know I will for the rest of my career, with pride. It was really fun to be a part of and really sad the way it turned out."
- REUTERS
ZURICH - Lindsay Davenport can regain the world No 1 tennis spot by beating Slovak Daniela Hantuchova in the second round of the Zurich Open on Thursday.
The 29-year-old American, however, would rather be at home than chasing ranking points in Europe.
"I'm better off at home with my family
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