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Lindsay Davenport insisted she can still snare a Grand Slam after another Australian Open failure Tuesday stretched the gap since her last major to six years and 20 tournaments.
The top seed went down 2-6, 6-2, 6-3 in the quarter-final to Belgian sixth seed Justine Henin-Hardenne, squandering an early lead to lose both the chance of a semi-final spot and her world number one ranking.
The 29-year-old dismissed talk of retirement after the loss and said she remained determined to add to her tally of three Grand Slams, the last of which she claimed in Australia in 2000.
"Obviously (it's) disappointing tonight but I wouldn't stay out here and I wouldn't give it my all if I didn't feel like it was still reachable," she said, expressing confidence she would be back in Melbourne next year.
"I'm not going to run away from it because it didn't happen in this one match."
She shrugged off the loss of the number one ranking, which she has held for almost 100 weeks during her career and could struggle to regain without Grand Slam success.
"It's not up in my priority list -- my whole goal is to try and get better and play really well with the tournaments I decide to play," she said. "I'll be playing fewer tournaments this year anyway, so it's inevitable it will happen.
"But if you're not getting really late, in the latter rounds of Grand Slams and winning them, I mean, I'm not going to argue that I deserve to be number one."
A losing finalist here and at Wimbledon last year, Davenport said she was encouraged athat spects of her game had come together in the Melbourne tournament and laid a foundation for further improvement, despite the loss.
"I feel like I'm really actually building something," she said. "Even though tonight maybe I took a step backwards, I still feel like I'm in the right direction."
The only way she will give it all up is if her husband Jon gets fed up with her travelling so much, but right now that isn't an issue.
"I think he makes it easier by being so supportive of this crazy life," she said.
"I think if he had a hard time with that, it would be the end of my tennis, because obviously that's more important."
Davenport said her plans for the immediate future involved healing an ankle injury picked up in Melbourne.
"I don't know, go home and get my body better again and then get back to the drawing board and, you know, fire up again for the tournaments back up in the States -- Indian Wells, Miami," she said.
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AFP 241245 GMT 01 06
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