Sports

Davenport Withdraws From Wimbledon Due To Injury

WIMBLEDON, England (AP) ― Former champion Lindsay Davenport withdrew before her second-round match at Wimbledon on Thursday with an injured right knee.

The 32-year-old American pulled out before her scheduled match on Court 3 against Argentina's Gisela Dulko, who advanced to the third round by walkover.

Davenport, the 1999 champion, hobbled past Renata Voracova 6-3, 5-7, 6-3 in her opening match on Tuesday with her knee heavily taped.

"It's just really inflamed and painful," she said. "I rested all day yesterday and did treatment. After warming up, I felt like I was 25, maybe 30 percent. That's not good enough for a second-round match."

She had been idle for two months after sitting out the clay-court season and had pulled out of a grass-court warmup tournament at Eastbourne last week due to the same problem.

Davenport was seeded 25th despite playing only seven tournaments this season in her comeback after leaving the women's tour in late 2006 to have her first child, a son named Jagger.

It was her 13th visit to Wimbledon and could be her last.

Asked if she would be back next year, she paused and said: "I guess not. It did come into my mind today that it is my last chance to play here."

Davenport said she expected to be sidelined for up to four weeks, with scans showing she would not require surgery.

Now she's hoping to be fit in time for the Beijing Olympics and wants to have another shot at the U.S. Open after that.

"The diagnosis was three to four weeks, I should be fine," she said.

Davenport beat seven-time champion Steffi Graf in the '99 final and was runner-up in 2004 and '05. She had not lost before the quarterfinals since 1997.

(© 2008 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

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