1990–1993 She won the girls' 16s singles at the prestigious
Ojai Tennis Tournament in 1990. While Davenport's first play dated back to 1991, she officially became a professional two years after her first professional-level matches. Davenport's doubles success in 1993 was a 17–16 record while she reached the top 100 in doubles rankings. She reached the third round at the
1993 Australian Open doubles competition with
Chanda Rubin. Davenport entered the top 20, despite coming into her first tournament that year ranked no. 162. She qualified for the 1993 Australian Open, reaching the third round before falling to
Mary Pierce. At the
Indian Wells Masters, Davenport reached the quarterfinals ranked no. 99, but lost to 7th-ranked and future doubles partner
Mary Joe Fernández. Later that year, Davenport won her first Tier III title at the
WTA Swiss Open where she beat
Nicole Bradtke in three sets in the finals. She reached the third round at the
1993 Wimbledon Championships, and at the
1993 US Open, the American reached the fourth round ranked no. 24. 1993 is also notable because it was the one time she faced
Martina Navratilova, falling in three sets, 6–1, 3–6, 5–7, in the Oakland semifinals.
1994 Davenport won the first professional tournament she entered in
Brisbane, Australia. At the
Australian Open, she reached her first Grand Slam quarterfinal, defeating no. 5
Mary Joe Fernández in the fourth round, before losing in the quarterfinals to top-ranked
Steffi Graf. Davenport then reached the semifinals at
Indian Wells, California and
Miami and won the title in
Lucerne. At
Wimbledon, Davenport reached her second Grand Slam quarterfinal. Ranked ninth, Davenport defeated tenth ranked
Gabriela Sabatini, before losing to third ranked
Conchita Martínez, who went on to win the tournament. In November, she reached her first WTA Tour Championship final, losing to Sabatini. In doubles, Davenport won Indian Wells with
Lisa Raymond and reached the French Open doubles final with Raymond, where they lost to
Gigi Fernández and
Natasha Zvereva. Davenport teamed with
Arantxa Sánchez Vicario to win the title in
Oakland, defeating Gigi Fernández and
Martina Navratilova in the final. In December 1994, Davenport hired Craig Kardon as her coach.
1995 Davenport started the year by reaching the final of the tournament in
Sydney, where she lost to
Gabriela Sabatini. Davenport again reached the Australian Open quarterfinals and the following week, lost to
Kimiko Date in the final of the tournament in Tokyo. On
clay, Davenport won the tournament in
Strasbourg on her first attempt, defeating
Kimiko Date in the final. Date, however, turned the tables at the French Open, defeating Davenport in the fourth round. At
Wimbledon, Davenport was upset in the fourth round by
Mary Joe Fernández. At the final Grand Slam tournament of the year, the
US Open, Davenport was again upset, this time in the second round by
Zina Garrison Jackson. In doubles, Davenport and
Jana Novotná started the year by winning the tournament in Sydney. Davenport and
Lisa Raymond then lost in the Australian Open semifinals to the top seeded team of
Gigi Fernández and
Natasha Zvereva. Davenport teamed with
Nicole Arendt to reach the French Open semifinals, where they lost to the top seeded team of Novotná and
Arantxa Sánchez Vicario. At Wimbledon, Davenport and Raymond, the fourth seeded team, were upset in the first round. At the US Open, Davenport and Raymond were again the fourth seeded team and were upset in the third round by fifteenth seeded
Lori McNeil and
Helena Suková. In other tournaments, Davenport and Raymond won in Indian Wells, and Davenport and Mary Joe Fernández won in Tokyo (the non-Tier I tournament) and Strasbourg. After her one-year contract with Kardon had ended, Davenport hired
Robert Van't Hof as her full-time coach. Davenport then won
Zürich and lost to 17th-ranked Graf in
Philadelphia despite attaining the no. 1 ranking. Davenport finished the year with a loss to Hingis in the final of the
Chase Championships . In doubles, Davenport reached the final of the 1998 Australian Open with
Natasha Zvereva, where they lost to the wildcard team of Hingis and
Mirjana Lučić. Davenport and Zvereva lost to Hingis and Lučić again in the Tokyo final, and then won both Indian Wells and
Berlin, both times defeating
Alexandra Fusai and
Nathalie Tauziat in the final. Davenport and Zvereva then lost to Hingis and
Jana Novotná in the French Open,
Wimbledon, and US Open doubles finals. Davenport won San Diego and Stanford with Zvereva and lost in the US Open doubles final. Davenport won
Filderstadt, and then the year-end doubles championship with Zvereva, defeating Fusai and Tauziat in three sets. In 1998, Davenport reached all four Grand Slam doubles finals with Zvereva, losing to teams that included Hingis all four times.
1999 Davenport started 1999 by winning the
Sydney singles final and reaching the
Australian Open singles semifinal, before losing to
Amélie Mauresmo. She teamed with
Natasha Zvereva to reach the doubles final, before losing to
Martina Hingis and
Anna Kournikova. At the
Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo, Davenport and Zvereva beat Hingis and
Jana Novotná, to whom they had lost in three of the four 1998 Grand Slam doubles finals. Davenport's second singles title of the year was at
Madrid where she defeated
lucky loser Paola Suárez in the final. At Roland Garros, she reached the quarterfinals losing to Steffi Graf. Along the way, she defeated qualifier and future four-times French Open champion
Justine Henin in the second round. Davenport's next tournament championship was at
Wimbledon. In the final, she defeated
Steffi Graf in Graf's last career Grand Slam match. Davenport also won the doubles title at Wimbledon with
Corina Morariu, defeating
Mariaan de Swardt and
Elena Tatarkova in the final. After Wimbledon, Davenport won the singles and doubles titles in
Stanford and won
San Diego in doubles with Morariu over
Serena and
Venus Williams in the final, the only doubles final the sisters have ever lost in their playing careers. She lost the US Open semifinal to eventual champion
Serena Williams. To close the year, Davenport won two additional singles and the
Chase Championships with a victory over Hingis in the final.
2000 Davenport started the year by losing the
Sydney singles final against
Amélie Mauresmo. Her next event was the
2000 Australian Open, which she won in singles without the loss of a set. Seeded second, Davenport defeated top-seeded
Martina Hingis in the final. She and
Corina Morariu lost in the doubles semifinals to Hingis and
Mary Pierce. She reached the final of the tournament in
Sydney, where she lost to Kim Clijsters. She then reached the fourth round of the
Australian Open, where she lost to
Justine Henin. Davenport then won in
Tokyo and lost in the
Indian Wells, California final to Clijsters. At the remaining Grand Slam tournaments of the year, she lost in the
French Open fourth round, the
Wimbledon quarterfinals, and the
US Open semifinals. She was the runner-up at tournaments in
Amelia Island, Florida,
Los Angeles, and
New Haven. Davenport and
Lisa Raymond reached the doubles semifinals of the Australian Open, where they lost to
Serena Williams and
Venus Williams. Davenport and Raymond won Indian Wells, defeating Clijsters and
Ai Sugiyama. Davenport and Raymond also won in Amelia Island, over
Paola Suárez and
Virginia Ruano Pascual, and in
Eastbourne, over
Jennifer Capriati and
Magüi Serna. Davenport and Raymond lost in the Wimbledon semifinals to Clijsters and Sugiyama.
2004 Davenport won a tour-high seven titles, including four straight during the summer (
Stanford,
Los Angeles,
San Diego, and
Cincinnati). She also had the most match wins on the
WTA Tour, with 63. She finished the year ranked first for the third time in her career. She defeated Venus and Serena Williams for the first time since 2000, which she said instilled belief in her that she could win more Grand Slam tournaments.
2005 Davenport's success continued into 2005, when she reached her first Grand Slam final, at the Australian Open, since the
2000 US Open; she fell to
Serena Williams in three sets. At the tournament in
Indian Wells, California, in March, Davenport made history by defeating world no. 3
Maria Sharapova, 6–0, 6–0. It marked the first time that a player ranked in the top 3 had ever been "shut out" on the WTA tour and was the first time Sharapova had failed to win a game during a match. This turned out to be Davenport's only career victory against Sharapova. In April, she won the
Bausch & Lomb Championships in
Amelia Island, Florida for the third time, defeating
Silvia Farina Elia in the final. In the quarterfinals of that tournament, Davenport defeated
Venus Williams for the fourth consecutive time. Davenport bypassed the European clay-court season and went to the French Open without having played a professional competitive match for weeks. She confounded expectations with a run to the quarterfinals on her least favourite surface, including a come-from-behind victory over
Kim Clijsters in the fourth round. Davenport lost to eventual runner-up
Mary Pierce. At
Wimbledon, Davenport was the top seed and made it easily to the fourth round, where she was tested again by Clijsters, but came through in three sets to win her second successive match against the Belgian. Davenport then reached the semifinals, where her match against
Amélie Mauresmo was interrupted by rain and was completed over the course of two days. Davenport eventually defeated Mauresmo and faced 14th-seeded
Venus Williams in an all-American final. Davenport led most of the way, as she served for the match at 6–5 in the second set, and had a match point at 5–4 in the third set. Williams went on to win, 4–6, 7–6, 9–7, in the longest (in terms of time) women's Wimbledon final in history. In that match, Davenport sustained a serious back injury while leading 4–2 (40–15) in the final set, although she acknowledged after the match that the injury did not cause her defeat and that Williams was the superior mentally strong player on the day. The injury forced Davenport to withdraw from
Fed Cup competition. She returned to the tour at the
Stanford tournament. After reinjuring her back in a warmup just hours before her match, Davenport retired while trailing 0–5 in the first set. This back injury then forced her to withdraw from other hard-court events in
San Diego and
Los Angeles. Davenport returned to the WTA Tour in August, winning her comeback tournament in
New Haven without dropping a set. Davenport then reached the quarterfinals of the US Open, where she held a match point on
Elena Dementieva, before falling in the third set tie-break. Davenport briefly lost the no. 1 ranking following the event. against
Katarina Srebotnik of
Slovenia in the third round on the Grandstand court After the loss at the US Open, Davenport captured the title in
Bali without dropping a set, and subsequently qualified for the
WTA Tour Championships. She then won the title in
Filderstadt, defeating Mauresmo in the final for the second consecutive year. The win made her only the tenth woman ever to win 50 career WTA singles titles. In
Zürich, Davenport saved two match points while defeating
Daniela Hantuchová. The win assured Davenport of recapturing the world no. 1 ranking from Sharapova the following week. In the final, Davenport defeated sixth seeded
Patty Schnyder for her fourth title in Zürich and her sixth title of 2005, second only to Clijsters's nine. It was also the first time Davenport had saved match points en route to a victory since the
1999 U.S. Open. The Zürich title left her with eleven Tier I titles, second among active players. Davenport was a semifinalist at the WTA tour year-end championships (losing to Pierce in two tie-breaks), which ensured that she finished the year ranked no. 1. 2005 was the fourth time that Davenport ended the year ranked No. 1, joining
Steffi Graf,
Martina Navratilova, and
Chris Evert as the only female players to end a year ranked first at least four times. In 2005, TENNIS Magazine ranked Davenport 29th in its list of the 40 greatest players of the tennis era.
2006 On February 22, 2006, Davenport became just the eighth woman in WTA history to win 700 singles matches, when she handed out her fourth career "double bagel", defeating
Elena Likhovtseva in the second round of the
Dubai tournament. At the March tournament in
Indian Wells, California, Davenport lost in the fourth round to
Martina Hingis. She was then absent from the tour until August because of a back injury. She returned in
Los Angeles, losing a second-round match to
Samantha Stosur. It was Davenport's earliest exit from a tournament since early 2003. Davenport attributed the loss to her having resumed training only three weeks prior to the start of the tournament. Davenport had re-hired
Adam Peterson as her coach, with whom she worked during her 2004–05 resurgence. At the tournament in
New Haven, Davenport defeated world no. 1
Amélie Mauresmo in the quarterfinals, but was forced to retire with a right shoulder injury while playing
Justine Henin in the final. Despite injury, Davenport reached the
US Open quarterfinals, where she again lost to Henin. Davenport's last competitive match before the December announcement of her pregnancy was a quarterfinal loss in
Beijing to top-ranked Mauresmo. It was Mauresmo's first win over Davenport after nine consecutive losses.
2007 On July 18, 2007, Davenport announced that she would return to the
WTA Tour. At her first tournament, she partnered with
Lisa Raymond in the doubles competition at
New Haven, where they lost in the first round to top seeds
Cara Black and
Liezel Huber. Davenport returned to singles competition in
Bali, where she won her first title since 2005, defeating
Daniela Hantuchová in the final. En route to the title, Davenport defeated third ranked
Jelena Janković, among others. Davenport and her partner Hantuchová also advanced to the semifinals in Bali, before withdrawing from the tournament. Davenport's second tournament was in
Beijing, where she defeated fourth-seeded Russian
Elena Dementieva in the quarterfinals, before losing to Janković in the semifinals. Davenport's third tournament was in
Quebec City, Canada, defeating second-seeded
Vera Zvonareva in the semifinals and
Julia Vakulenko in the final. This was Davenport's 53rd career singles title and lifted her to no. 73 in the WTA rankings.
2008 Davenport won the
ASB Classic in
Auckland, New Zealand, the first
WTA tour event of the year. Davenport defeated
Aravane Rezaï in the final. This raised her ranking to world no. 52. She was the only player in the WTA top 100 that had fewer than 10 tournaments counting towards her world ranking. At the first Grand Slam tournament of the year, the Australian Open, Davenport lost in the second round to eventual champion
Maria Sharapova, 1–6, 3–6. This was the first time that Davenport had lost to Sharapova in straight sets. On January 14, 2008, Davenport surpassed
Steffi Graf in career prize money earned on the women's tour, garnering a total of US$21,897,501. In March, Davenport won her second tournament of the year and 55th career singles title by beating
Olga Govortsova in the final of the
Regions Morgan Keegan Championships & The Cellular South Cup in
Memphis, Tennessee. She tied
Virginia Wade for seventh place on the list of most singles titles won during the
open era. Davenport also teamed with
Lisa Raymond to win the doubles title. At the
Tier I Pacific Life Open in
Indian Wells, California, Davenport lost in the quarterfinals to
Jelena Janković, 6–2, retired. She retired from the match because of a back injury sustained before the match started. At the Tier I
Sony Ericsson Open in
Key Biscayne, Florida, Davenport defeated world no. 2 and second-seeded
Ana Ivanovic in the third round, 6–4, 6–2, before losing her fourth-round match with
Dinara Safina, 3–6, 4–6. In her first clay-court tournament since 2005, Davenport reached the semifinals of the
Bausch & Lomb Championships in
Amelia Island, Florida, where she defaulted her match with Sharapova before it began, due to illness. Citing undisclosed personal reasons, Davenport withdrew from the
French Open five days before the tournament began. At Wimbledon, Davenport was seeded 25th, won her first-round match, and then withdrew from the tournament because of a right knee injury. On August 8, 2008, Davenport withdrew from the singles competition at the Olympic Games in Beijing because of a lingering knee injury. She and her partner, world no. 1 doubles player
Liezel Huber, lost in the women's doubles quarterfinals. At the
US Open, Davenport was seeded 23rd and lost to 12th-seeded
Marion Bartoli in the third round. Davenport was scheduled to play the
Fortis Championships Luxembourg in October, but withdrew before the start of the tournament.
2009 Davenport announced her intention to play in the 2009 Australian Open in January, ending speculation that she would be retiring from the sport. However, she withdrew from the event when she learned that she was expecting her second child. It was announced on June 30, 2009, that Davenport had given birth to a baby girl.
2010 In her first tournament since the
2008 US Open, Davenport played mixed doubles at
Wimbledon with
Bob Bryan, where they received a wild card. They made it to the second round before falling to
Daniel Nestor and
Bethanie Mattek-Sands. Davenport also announced her intention to play doubles at two tournaments in the American hard-court season. The first tournament was the women's doubles event at the
2010 Bank of the West Classic, where she won the title partnering
Liezel Huber. She followed this with the
2010 Mercury Insurance Open, again with Huber. They lost in the quarterfinals to
Bethanie Mattek-Sands and
Yan Zi.
2011 At the
2011 French Open she won the
Women's Legends Doubles event with partner
Martina Hingis. Davenport went on to win the
Wimbledon Invitational Doubles event, partnering once again with Hingis. World Team Tennis announced that Davenport would not be able to compete for the season because she was pregnant with her third child. ==World TeamTennis==