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When I said I wanted to run a marathon, I wanted to do it under four hours. But when I started training, I was like, 'Oh I got this,' so I wanted to run between 3:30 and 3:35. I'm really proud of myself.
I love tennis. But even if I become the greatest of all time, I still don't only want to be defined by tennis. I'm my own person. And I want to be remembered as I really am. I'm so much more than tennis.
I am disappointed when I lose and don't play well, for example. But it is not so disappointing to lose when you play good. And I never feel I want to put the racquet down and walk away because of losing.
I grew up watching North American sport - basketball, hockey - so I like it when it's a little bit more energetic, rowdier, heckling either for you or against you. I think it's fun to have that in sport.
I was shy when I was a kid, I was very shy, but now I think I've improved a lot. I can speak OK with the media and with the people. My English is still bad but I feel a little bit better now than before.
My motivation and aspiration is the same, being number one or being number five. So that's the truth. And my goal is the same - it's to always be happy playing, it's to enjoy the game and improve always.
We have, or have had women presidents or prime ministers in Liberia, Chile, Germany, Great Britain...and yet the US of A still hasn't had a women president. It's just beyond my thinking. Look at Congress.
I was in the tennis bubble. I wasn't thinking about the big picture. I didn't notice what they said on television, I wasn't reading any papers. I had a coach and a manager, and they kept me in the bubble.
This is not a problem. I'm making everybody very calm, distracted by my bad results and then I'm going to shoot. One good result and I'm coming back. This is a distraction, it's the calm before the storm.
I still love things that you don't even need to pay for. Going to the beach and being around five of your friends and having a good time means so much more than going out and spending hundreds of dollars.
But the problem with coaching is that it is a full-time job. By that I mean for at least 40 weeks in a year you have to be with the player, either travelling or training. Right now I don't want to do that
I don't consider myself as a great painter; I just feel that art is about expressing your emotions and expressing your feelings, and music is the same way; you can see what other people are going through.
Now that I've won a slam, I know something very few people on earth are permitted to know. A win doesn't feel as good as a loss feels bad, and the good feeling doesn't last long as the bad. Not even close.
Why would I get a wild card into an American tournament, (as the) top-ranked American? Why would that happen? That makes too much sense. Maybe I should play more Davis Cup, that's the story. Oh wait, I do.
And even though we don't have the professional relationship anymore, the love and friendship we have for each other will remain. He is like a father to me and I hope we both keep succeeding in our careers.
I had a coach that was not a great player, but he taught with kids and juniors so that by the time he was 50 he was great. He helped me make the top 5 in the world and yet he wasn't a great player himself.
America has an interesting global role, don't we? It certainly seems to be changing. Our government right now has a softer hand than we've had in the past, but I still think that we're the global behemoth.
Nadal and Roger Federer have great respect for each other. I think Novak Djokovic gets under those two guys' skin a little bit, and maybe they don't want to admit it, and I think that's, in a way, healthy.
We're stuck in the concrete age. Concrete has really become this ever-present material that's almost impossible to get away from. It's cheap, abundant, and easy to work with, and to an extent, that's good.
I'll do some running with the dogs, ride a bike; if I go to gym it's usually for cardio. I don't do weights as much; every once in while, I throw in some pushups and do leg exercises to strengthen my legs.
Instant replay is going to be awesome. For too long, tennis has been stuck in its traditions, which is part of its strength as a game. But you have to be able to change some things and get fans interested.
I still like sweets and sometimes treat myself but not often. I try to keep an eye on it, but it's not like I'm desperate to go and eat a whole chocolate cake! I do like a bit of vanilla ice cream, though.
But the problem with coaching is that it is a full-time job. By that I mean for at least 40 weeks in a year you have to be with the player, either travelling or training. Right now I don't want to do that.
I feel like I don't have to win anymore. I've had a wonderful career. Tennis has given me so much, things I would have never expected in my life. I feel honored to even be a part of such a wonderful sport.
I had a lot of different thoughts and ideas and always to transform, but I'm trying certain things that I feel my heart is really going for and that was one of the things that I initiated a few months ago.
For years I felt that I didn't have enough stamina and then, four years ago, I felt like I was not getting enough air but I was diagnosed with exercise-induced asthma. The medicine for asthma never worked.
When you're a big sister, it's a great job. I don't know how little sisters feel about their job, but when you're a big sister, you're supposed to take care of everything. And you feel good about it. I do.
There are times when the only people you spend time with are the people in your team. That's hard, because I think, 'I'm a girl. I want to hang out with other girls. I just want to be a normal young woman.'
Jesus has no tenderness toward anything that is ultimately going to ruin a man in service to Him. If God brings to your mind a vese which hurts you, you may be sure that there is something He wants to hurt.
Single-mindedness. I hate to say it because I don't think it's the best thing for developing a person, but the single-mindedness - just concentrating in the one area - that's what it takes to be a champion.
Guys are bigger, stronger, just like in singles, serving bigger, returning better, and more athletic for sure. I think from my standpoint, just spending more time in the gym has enabled me to hang in there.
The serve is the only thing you know about yourself when you play tennis. If you make it right, you make it right. Nobody can touch you when you serve. Nobody can disturb you. You have the ball in the hand.
It's something powerful to receive all this love. In the street. In Congo, everywhere. But it's also hellish at the same time. When all that comes at you from one day to the next, it's really destabilizing.
So there was a fire inside me. And that fire inside you, it can be turned into a negative form or a positive form. And I gradually realised that I had this fire and that it had to be used in a positive way.
Just put one foot in front of the other and don't worry about the length of the path. Once you get on that path, and the longer you stay on it, there eventually will come a time when you will not turn back.
I decided to work really hard in 1987. I hired Matt Doyle, a former pro player, and he helped me with my physical training. Lendl was the first to focus on that. He used to be weak, physically and mentally.
It was difficult after losing the first two sets and in the third set I was a break down, but something happened and I tried to run and keep fighting and I kept swinging in the third, fourth and fifth sets.
The history of our country is cruel. We have to face those issues or, should I say, we had to. Not anymore I hope, because we are going in the right direction, and we are ready to forgive, ready to move on.
There is always a lot of work going on behind the scenes at a tournament, and that's even more true at the WTA Finals, where we have many activities during the day, and you really have to set everything up.
Core strength and stability is very important to me. Tennis is all about rotation of the body and my ability to create power. I incorporate a lot of abdominal, back and glute exercises into my gym sessions.
Some moments it feels longer, other moments it feels like it's flown by; you can't believe you've done it all that time... Overall, you have a strong sense for the full spectrum that you've sort of traveled.
A lot of the players are very complimentary about each other; they embrace at the end of matches because the level of the tennis has been so good. I think that's something that tennis has got to be proud of.
I said a lot of things about which I was wrong. Now I have to sit back and take what's coming, and I will. I still like women in the bedrooms and kitchens in that order, but some of them can do other things.
I don't know, I always get the question 'how do you feel after the game today?' and, of course, if you're winning you feel great and if you lose you don't feel good. I think that's a pretty obvious question.
Tennis Canada nominated me a few years ago, and I did some research into it and realized it's one of the biggest honours you can have as a Canadian. I've seen the list of the people, and it's pretty special.
You can't really describe how difficult it is to deal with. It is any athlete's worst nightmare to be accused of cheating by taking drugs. It really is very difficult to put into words how it makes you feel.
My theory is that I'm just closer to the sun than everyone else. I weigh more than everyone else, I'm taller than everyone else. When it's really humid and hot outside it's going to take a bigger toll on me.
That's one of the reasons I moved to Florida. Of course, the main reason is the weather and the training. But there's more jealousy in Switzerland because it's so little and they don't have so many athletes.
He is still my father. He is still a person I know I could trust and he would never do anything against me. Once you're at the top, there are not many people like that. People always want something from you.
We spent all day travelling, living away from the people you love, not sleep in our own bed ... We are far from our own houses. We live in hotels, clubs. And now that I am a father it is much more difficult.