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I try to live in the moment and not overthink things because then you start putting yourself in situations that you don't want to be in pressure-wise.
It can be tough and lonely on the road, but at the end of the day we get to play professional tennis for a living, and I wouldn't change it for the world.
Every single day, my parents fed me balls. Eventually it turned into having a coach, and then it went to being at an academy. You know, it worked out pretty well.
Everyone else wants to hear 'I wanna be Top 5,' or 'I want to be winning a Grand Slam.' Those are all goals of mine, but I'm not going to put a time limit on them.
For me, losing is definitely not easy, but I think you just have to keep everything in perspective. Just remember that there's another tournament around the corner.
My nerves tend to dissipate once the match starts. When I know I've practiced as much as I can and I do my best and leave it all out there, I feel OK no matter what happens.
It was tough because I was on the road so much, on top of everything. I went through what every girl goes through emotionally in life, going through high school. It wasn't easy.
You can get eight thousand great, amazing messages, and someone will send you one thing that you're maybe self-conscious about, and that's the only thing in your head for the rest of the day.
My priority when I get off the plane and get to a city is get situated at the hotel and then go on site and get a good practice in. Sometimes working out can help with getting over jet lag as well.
When I have a nice rhythm going, and I have my toss in the right spot, when everything is kind of working how it's supposed to be, I think it's just really easy, you know, and I don't have to overthink on it.
It wasn't until people started asking me what my plans were for the future - if I would go to college or go pro - that it really hit me what I wanted to do. I decided I wanted to go pro and try to be in Wimbledon.
I'm one of those people who writes out words. All of my text messages? You can read them. Everyone would know what I'm trying to say. My sister will say 'BTW.' Do you mean 'by the way'? Is that what you're trying to say?
I've done some meditation stuff like apps on my phone, but sometimes it's just about breathing deeply taking some deep breaths and slowing my mind down and focusing and something simple that can really help quiet my mind.
I think my biggest thing is learning when to hit which serve when, not doing the exact same thing over and over. Because O.K., great, it's 120 miles per hour, but they're standing right there, and they just block it back.
I'm really lucky to have Lindsay Davenport as my coach. She was number one in the world, and she's won Grand Slams, so if there's any person who can help me get through, it's her. Getting her advice is very special for me.
We do get to do what we love. I think that's really special, and I think sometimes we get really caught up in the winning and the losing and rankings. And at the end of the day, we get to play a sport that we love for our jobs.
We do a lot of lifting, and mix it up with upper body and lower body. A lot of circuit training for cardio. I hate just doing long distance running, so I do 5 or 6 different exercises for 20 to 30 seconds then move to the next one.
My mom and grandma always told me: if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all. It's something everyone needs to be more conscious about. Putting more positive energy out into the world would be so beneficial.
Both of my grandmothers have always been really good bakers, and I was always in the kitchen helping them. Obviously I can't eat a lot of the things that I make, but just baking it and giving it to someone makes me feel really good.
There's just so much girl-on-girl hate. It happens to start in high school, and then it builds and gets bigger and bigger, and it seems like for some reason there's this mentality that if another girl does well, she's taking my spot.
No one who has gotten second place at a Grand Slam is ever like, 'Yeah, now I feel fine about it.' Everyone wants the other trophy. But it inspires you to work harder and get yourself in that position again so that you can use what you've learned.
I think it's just really good to be honest with yourself and if I'm not feeling up for something I have no problem staying in my room in ordering some food and relaxing and managing my energy and kind of just checking in with myself throughout the day.
I've had people ask me whether I'm concerned about wearing makeup into a match, for example. One year, an on-court commentator asked one of the girls to twirl after the match. Surely, he's not going to go up to a man to ask, 'Can you do a spin for us?'
Since I came on the tour so young and I won my first match, I've had a lot of comments like 'You'll be a top player one day.' I got to the point where, as nice as it was to hear that, I almost stopped listening to it. I was almost putting added pressure on myself.
I think the biggest thing is knowing that those thoughts of panic are probably going to go into your brain, and just accepting it... So that's been the biggest thing. Not fighting it and trying to think I'm going to have the perfect mentality the entire time. That's not going to happen.
As far as cities, one of my favorite stops every year is Rome I think it's super fun to play there, because the tournament is really cool and the fans are super engaged, but also you get to walk around going to dinner, and the history - it's truly one of the most amazing cities in the world. I love it.
I have a specific routine before every match. I like to grip my rackets, because I feel that someone else won't do it how I like them. But the biggest thing is that I don't like to stress about my match all morning. Twenty minutes before, I'll sit down and think about the game plan and warm up. And then I just play.
My thought process when I'm on the court is always thinking about getting better, and thinking about how I'm playing. Thinking about it as a process, as the big picture and what I need to work on, instead of being close-minded and thinking, 'I'm so nervous and have to win this match, if I don't, it'll be the worst.'
I think when you're younger and you're watching people play on TV, you always say that you want to be at the French Open - you want to be playing Grand Slams. But then actually being there doing it, it kind of blows you away thinking, Wow, I actually used to think maybe I could do that one day, and now I'm actually doing it.
On those days when you don't want to get up, I think, I'm going to get through my entire practice without saying how tired I am or I try not to complain just because I was in a bad mood when I woke up. Even if it's not perfect and I slip up, I can catch myself and make myself of aware of where my mental space is at and move on.
One night I couldn't sleep at three in the morning and I thought, I'm going to color-coordinate my closet. And I did. There's a whole system. It goes from white to black and then all the colors in the middle. Then it goes by tank tops to T-shirts to long sleeves, and then it goes to the next color. Then it goes to sweaters the same way.