KEY POINTS:
It was just a wee slip of the tongue, but it said plenty about former world No 1 Lindsay Davenport's tennis ambitions.
Pushing a stroller containing baby son Jagger, the 31-year-old three-time Grand Slam winner looked little different from the rest of the travel-weary throng who had just
flown into Auckland from Los Angeles yesterday morning.
Unlike many of her fellow travellers, however, the most decorated tennis player to compete in this country is not here to holiday.
"My goal is to win the tournament," she said of the ASB Classic, which starts on Monday.
Nothing surprising in that. It's a sentiment surely shared by each of the other 31 players in the draw.
It was, however, a slightly different line from the "Auckland is a place I've always wanted to visit" that she took when her participation in the tournament was announced in November.
At that time, she also said her days of winning Grand Slams were probably behind her.
But when pressed on her goals yesterday, Davenport hinted at where she sees her game returning to.
She was, she said, excited about the chance to "just get back out there and play in the majors and compete against everyone else in the top 10 and see where I'm at".
Everyone else? Given that, before pregnancy and childbirth, she was seldom out of it during a 15-year career, it's no surprise Davenport still thinks of herself as a top 10 player.
But her current ranking is actually 72, meaning she will be unseeded in tomorrow's draw.
"I'm still working on it but I feel like I've made a lot of strides, with my son born only six months ago," she said of a comeback that has included two titles in three tournaments and wins over Daniela Hantuchova and Jelena Jankovic.
"I think I have a lot I can accomplish still. Starting here in Auckland, my goal is to win this tournament. I have been practising hard."
The last of her three major victories came in Melbourne seven years ago, so Davenport is likely to be right when she says her Grand Slam-winning days are probably behind her.
But there have been more unlikely comebacks. And Davenport certainly doesn't sound much like a player who truly believed cutting it at the highest level was now beyond her; who is just using tennis as a way to relieve the stress of motherhood.
"I think I can do well," she said of her return to Melbourne for first major of the year, a little over a week after the Classic.
"It is going to be tough. I am not going to come down here and say 'I am going to win a Grand Slam' and stuff like that. It is just such a challenge to come back now being a mum and my goals are definitely different.
"I don't have a ranking goal per se, I am really out here to see what I can accomplish.
"Maybe that is doing well in majors, but it's certainly not the focus it once was.
"Obviously my focus is mainly on my child but it is a lot of fun for me to still have an outlet and play tennis, have a little bit of a career of my own."
How long that career continues will likely depend on what sort of year she has - a year that begins in Auckland next week.
