Pregnant Davenport weighs up retirement

Former world number one Lindsay Davenport admits she is considering retirement after announcing she is expecting her first child in early summer.

The three-time Grand Slam winner, who missed a large proportion of the 2006 season with a back injury and ended the year ranked 25th, will definitely miss the start of the 2007 tennis season.

But she admitted she “can’t imagine playing again” after a 15-year career. “I hate the word 'retirement', but this season was such a struggle physically for me, and I can’t imagine playing again,” the 30-year-old told ESPN.com.

“I can’t say there’s any sadness, yet, about missing tennis. My life is with my husband and my future child.”

Davenport has already cancelled a New Year’s Day exhibition against Maria Sharapova.

“I feel like the second part of my life is about to begin, and I feel so lucky that if everything goes well, I'm able to go out like this. The timing couldn’t be better,” she added.

Davenport, who missed last season’s French Open and Wimbledon, claimed 51 singles crowns and won the Australian Open, Wimbledon and the US Open singles titles between 1998 to 2000.