Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
I had to experience many situations and emotions to develop, and I'm still striving to become the kind of competitor I want to be.
Before I started playing more on the WTA tour, I actually won most of my Challengers on the clay, especially at the very beginning.
There's a great group of people around me, and I think it's the way they all work together with me which makes me a very lucky girl.
It's the trials and tribulations that really test a person, and coming through those difficulties is what shapes a person's character.
If I'm ever in a position where I'm serving to win a grand slam, I'm sure that I will be feeling giddy inside. I will have sweaty palms.
I get quite stroppy if I lose - but I've developed skills with a mind coach to help deal with the highs and lows of tennis at this level.
I needed to go through certain life experiences, and not just on the court, to make me into the competitor that I am, and also the person.
I don't think circumstances change who you are as a person. I don't believe they change your values - unless you willingly would like them to.
I try to stay very true to the kind of person that I want to be and the kind of athlete and the kind of professional I continually strive to be.
I really enjoy representing my country and think the principles of what Fed Cup is about and the team environment is a great thing to be a part of.
One thing that is 100% certain is that emotions are always incredibly high in a match and, I would imagine, definitely more so in a grand slam final.
For me, it's just staying in the present, enjoying what I'm doing, and making sure I'm making the kind of improvements and moves forward that I want to.
There are always going to be distractions, push and shove between players. It's about rolling with the punches and enjoying every situation, good or bad.
This tennis world, this tennis community, is very much a bubble, and it's very easy to get lost in here. You know, there is a real world out there still.
If I would go out against some of these players and see them as their ranking, then I probably would have already lost before I even stepped on the court.
It's a safe bet most players would get nervous before a match. I do, too, but it's more excitement and more just wanting to get going, and I feel the same.
I've always wanted to become a grand-slam champion and to become the best in the world. Without that, the victories aren't as sweet or the defeats as motivating.
In my experience, most players act the way they do in their own self-interest, in getting their emotions out and basically working with their own demons on court.
Not everybody gets a home slam; not everybody gets home events. I am part of a very select few who get that opportunity, so I can only really be grateful for that.
I'm a British citizen, and I'm incredibly proud to represent Great Britain. I've also represented Great Britain in the Olympics, so I'm definitely a British athlete.
I think every single girl you face is good at handling pressure. That's part of why they're successful on a regular basis from season to season and over a lot of years.
If you look at the likes of Agnieszka Radwanska and Svetlana Kuznetsova, they've been around a long time and been successful for a long time. That speaks volumes for them.
I haven't exactly grown wings or anything. I'm happy with how I have been playing so far this week, but my feet are firmly on the ground. I haven't cured cancer or anything.
Winning is, of course, rewarding; who doesn't enjoy winning? But for me, it's about more than just winning: it's about knowing I'm putting in the day-to-day work to get a little bit better every time.
I spend most of my life in sports kit, so it usually shocks people when they see me in casual clothing - let alone dressed up with make-up on. I've walked past people from my own family who don't recognise me.
When I was a little girl, I dreamt of winning grand slams and being No. 1 in the world. That dream stays the same as long as you're doing the career that you're on. I think it would be silly for that to change.
Number one consideration is always availability. Then it's about - for me and, I guess, for every player - the connection with the coach, like with any relationship: how you work together, the chemistry on court.
When you're in the supermarket, you can usually tell straight away when someone recognises you, or they will come up to me and say, 'Well done,' or things like that. So it's nothing sinister or nothing super-crazy.
When I was young, I associated playing tennis with being part of historic moments, being part of these epic battles and coming out victorious, having those trophy moments. That, for me, is what I saw and aspired to.
I work differently. I enjoy creating a space around me and not getting too high or too low. But I am continuously looking to get better - not just as a tennis player but also as a person dealing with new experiences.
My experience on clay is less than possibly on hard and grass courts, but in terms of my game style and my physical abilities, I think there's no reason why I can't adapt well to the surface and really try to maximize what I can do well on clay.
I look to constantly be a better version of myself every time I step out on court. That has come out with some good wins and good things on paper, but if my ranking were to drop or to rise, it wouldn't affect my goals or how I want to keep improving.
I'm constantly trying to be strong, to be calm when things get tough. The biggest part of that is keeping things in perspective, not being afraid of playing long matches, not putting too much pressure on yourself. It can't be all or nothing, right here, right now.
As I've got older, I've really had to dig deep and find where my happiness comes from. Why do I play tennis? You get a lot of incredible highs, but it can be very lonely with some dark lows. So the biggest thing I've learned is finding the reasons for my enjoyment.
I was training in Spain for 15 months, and while I was there, my parents didn't want to be halfway around the world away from their 14-year-old daughter. So they migrated to the U.K. because they had Hungarian passports, and that's in the E.U., so they could work there.
Australia is my birth home, so it will always be a home of some sort. But I'm very happy, very pleased to be representing Great Britain. That is my home, and that is where my heart is. That is where I grew up, essentially. So when people ask me where I'm from, where is home, that's where it is.
What is best to hope for and what everyone is working towards is to elevate the quality of women's sport and to bring it to a level where it is seen as something that is very entertaining, something to be admired, to be looked up to, to put it in that level playing field as a product to be sold equal to the men.
I was a decent 800 m. runner, not 400 - and I'm actually really proud of this: I beat the girls and the boys to win my school 800, so it was a big deal at the time; I was about 11. Then I won the district and made it to state, but I just never went, because I was training, and tennis was a big part of my life at that point.
I would love a big family. I have this vision in my mind where I have four or five children, and then, when I'm in my 60s, it's Christmas, and all my kids come home with their spouses and lots of grandchildren. By the end of it, there are 40 to 50 people in my house, and I look around, feeling totally happy, surrounded by my family.
I was 14 in Barcelona, and when I initially went there, I didn't see my mum for six months and my dad for four months. Australia is far from Spain, but I don't remember how long or how short the days felt. I think what was most difficult for my parents was that if anything went wrong, they couldn't say, 'OK, we'll be there in a couple of hours.'