American good as gold in 2008

Remember the golden tickets that let Charlie and the other kids into Willy Wonka's chocolate factory? Lindsay Davenport has the tennis equivalent, and she's taking full advantage.

According to WTA spokeswoman Amy Binder, Davenport is only the second player besides Monica Seles (2003) who has been granted "gold emeritus exempt" status, a rare and highfalutin honor accorded 14-year veterans who have been No. 1 and have won at least three Grand Slam events or year-end championships.

The GEE means Davenport can receive a wild card into any tournament.

Davenport applied for the golden ticket when she came back in fall 2007 after giving birth to her son Jagger in June. She has the pass for the entire 2008 season, during which she hopes to play herself onto the U.S. Olympic team and compete in three of the four Slams, skipping Paris and its troublesome red dirt. (However, Davenport has committed to play on green clay at Amelia Island in April.)

As of press time, Davenport had lost only one match since coming back -- counting a couple in Auckland, New Zealand, this week, as she picked right up where she left off.

Davenport sounded positively ebullient when she talked to reporters just before the holidays. She described her experience in airport security lines, where there are no golden tickets, emeritus or otherwise.

"Traveling now, it's like, going through the airport, I really have nothing for myself," she said. "My rackets are checked, I have no magazines. It's all about him [Jagger] and his bottles and his food and his diapers. It's a lot more stuff and a lot more hassles in terms of logistics.

"I think it's just been the greatest thing for me. There's not really anything for me to kind of stress about in tennis. … It certainly makes life on the road a lot more fun when I'm sitting in my hotel room playing with my son and not by myself.''

The first step in Davenport's potential trip to Beijing was to make herself available for Fed Cup duty, an offer outgoing and incoming captains Zina Garrison and Mary Joe Fernandez -- who will pilot the team jointly this season -- were happy to accept. The first round pits the U.S. team against Germany Feb. 2-3 in La Jolla, Calif.

Garrison said that Venus Williams already has inquired about playing and that Serena is "trying to figure out how her schedule would go." If both sisters were to play, the doubles selection would be interesting -- Fed Cup doubles are played last in the five-match format and are thus either decisive or meaningless.

Two of the best doubles specialists in the world, Lisa Raymond and new U.S. citizen Liezel Huber, now play under U.S. colors. Or Garrison could choose a fourth singles player and play mix 'n' match. If only one of the Williamses comes on board, perhaps rivals Raymond and Huber would play together.

"It would be a huge, huge thing, obviously, if we could get both Venus and Serena, but even one of them would make the team just a really formidable opponent, and I don't think anybody would want to face us," Davenport said. "I certainly have to improve, but hopefully we can talk one of them into it, at least."

Bonnie D. Ford covers tennis and Olympic sports for ESPN.com. E-mail her at bonniedford@aol.com.