Davenport tops the women's rich list with first-round win

Jan 14, 2008, 12:38 GMT

   Melbourne - Lindsay Davenport climbed atop the all-time tennis rich list as her first-round win at the Australian Open on Monday took her career earnings to 21.9 million dollars.

   The 31-year-old Californian mum ensured her place - at least temporarily - with a 6-2, 3-6, 7-5 victory over Italy's Sara Errani.

   'If someone had told me that I'd be making a living - never mind anything more - I would not have believed it. Of course the money is incredible, but I'm not really doing it for that.

   'I'm sure that figure will be broken, Justine (Henin) made five million last year.'

   Davenport eclipsed Steffi Graf in career prize money, with the German having previously overtaken Martina Navratilova in earnings in 1998.  

The 25,284 dollars that Davenport earned by getting past the first round surpassed Graf by by 2,224 dollars.

   'I'm ecstatic.  I never thought I'd be back playing tennis and having this much fun in the process, let alone breaking any records,' said Davenport.

'When I picked up my first prize money cheque at the Evert Cup in Indian Wells in 1993, I never, ever thought it would have led to all this.'

   Davenport, holder of three Grand Slam titles, has won every major with the exception of Roland Garros.

   She won Australia in 2000 defeating Martina Hingis, Wimbledon in 1999 defeating Steffi Graf and her home Grand Slam, the 1998 US Open, over Hingis.

   Davenport found herself yearning for the game just weeks after giving birth to son Jagger last June.

   By September, she was playing Bali, winning that and finishing a semi-finalist in Beijing a week later and winning Quebec in November. She began 2008 with a third title from four events on the Gold Coast in Queensland.

   'This was definitely the most challenging match I've had since coming back,' said Davenport. 'I was so excited about coming back here and there's a lot of anticipation.

   'Ironically, I played the worst that I've played since I've been back. It was quite windy, she played very, very well, and was making me not hit the ball so cleanly,' she said of her match against Errani.

   'But at the end of the day, I got through it.  I'm happy to have won and toughed it out there at the end.'