NEW YORK -- When you are a professional athlete, your body is your temple, not to mention your ATM.

	Lindsay Davenport will need eight to 12 weeks to recover from foot surgery this fall.

When it's not functioning at 100 percent, which can be often, life can be miserable. When you're worried that it may not allow you to perform at all, the mental anxiety can transcend the physical pain. This is the gnawing, day-to-day existence of Lindsay Davenport.

"I was extremely nervous beforehand, just trying to figure out how my foot was going to be," she said after Monday's first-round match here at the U.S. Open. "If it's going to hurt? Will it be OK? It's kind of a weird feeling not knowing."

Davenport's left foot -- weakened by an inflamed nerve -- held up well in a brisk 46-minute 6-1, 6-0 first-round victory over Els Callenson. It survived her second-round match, too. Davenport defeated Maria Elena Camerin 6-2, 6-4 on Wednesday night.

The bad news? Davenport has no earthly idea if she'll make it through her third-round match with Melinda Czink.

"It's tough," Davenport said Wednesday. "Just challenging to try and worry about other things on top of playing tennis. I, in the past, have not been able to balance that very well."

If the short-term future is unclear for the No. 3 seed -- the highest-seeded American woman -- the next two or three months after the tournament will be more predictable. Davenport said she expects to have surgery to repair her foot after the Open and the recovery time is an estimated eight to 12 weeks. That is likely to take her out for the rest of the season. That should give her some time to catch up with her new husband, investment banker Jon Leach, to whom she was married in April.

After a miserable late spring and early summer that saw her retire during her fourth-round match against Conchita Martinez and fall to Venus Williams in the quarterfinals of Wimbledon, Davenport's frustration drove her to talk of retirement. After mulling the subject for six weeks -- and winning 10 of 13 matches on the U.S. hard-court circuit -- Davenport has reconsidered.

"It changes, you know," Davenport said. "In Paris and Wimbledon I was getting really frustrated dealing with another injury, another surgery, another layoff. I think it takes its toll mentally. But I'm really happy I stuck around this summer. It's given me some motivation to come back as soon as I can.

"I'm going to do the surgery and do my best to come back for whatever," she said. "I'll do my best to see how I'm feeling in December, see if I'm ready for Australia.

"At this point, I fully plan to try and be as ready as I can be."

That the body breaks down over time is inevitable. Professional tennis just accelerates the process. Davenport is just 27, but her 6-foot-2, 175-pound body is starting to fall apart.

She had knee surgery in January 2002 to correct a cartilage defect and spent the next nine weeks on crutches. After a six-month layoff, she rallied to win 24 of 33 matches and finished with the No. 12 ranking on the WTA Tour. And then there was a hamstring pull earlier this year and the foot injury, which first surfaced late last year, increasingly asserted itself in the spring.

Since the French Open, Davenport has had two cortisone shots. She was forced to retire when trailing Jennifer Capriati 6-2, 4-0 in the New Haven final last Saturday, and drove immediately to New York, where she consulted with trainers and doctors.

"They didn't want to give me the third," Davenport said. "I had to beg them."

Based on stern medical advice, there will not be a fourth. It's strictly a tight tape job before and a bucket of ice after.

And so, Davenport takes it day by day, step by step. After skipping practice on Sunday, she looked a little tentative in her first match Monday. She seemed to be walking on the outside edge of her foot, in an attempt to protect it. On Wednesday, she seemed to move a little better.

Against most first-week Grand Slam opponents, Davenport's powerful serve is alone enough to get her by. That was the case against Camerin. Even though she got just 46 percent of her first serves in, Davenport was only broken once in the 71-minute match. Still, her 22 winners and 23 unforced errors suggest there is room to improve.

Davenport's one complaint was that she wasn't getting "on top of the ball" as much as she would like. "I don't know if it was a result of subconsciously not stepping across or not hitting enough -- I have no idea," she said.

The real test will come next week as she approached the semifinals. Her conditioning -- she can't run at all or practice for extended periods -- may come into play. Her footwork may deteriorate; players with foot injuries tend to avoid the small, stuttering steps that ensure clean shots.

If the foot holds up -- and Davenport reports that the first two weeks after a cortisone shot are the best -- presumably, she'll find herself in the Thursday semifinals against top-seeded Kim Clijsters. This could pose a problem, since Davenport is 0-for-4 against Clijsters this year alone.

On the other hand, this represents a fabulous opportunity for Davenport.

The last time she won a Grand Slam title was the 2000 Australian Open. Since then, she's 0-for-14. Nine of those Slams were won by Serena Williams (5) or Venus Williams (4), who are missing this fortnight with injuries.

While Clijsters and fellow Belgian Justine Henin-Hardenne, the No. 2 seed, are the favorites, neither one has ever progressed past the quarterfinals here. Davenport, for what it's worth, knows how to win here. She was the 1999 champion and this is her favorite tournament.

Is she juiced about her chances in this Williams-less Open?

"I think maybe if I didn't have my foot and I was 100 percent, I would be a little bit more eager, excited, maybe thinking about it more," Davenport said. "If it was a different time, it would be a little bit more into them not being here, but right now it's not really affecting me."

Greg Garber is a senior writer at ESPN.com.