Quotes from Rod Laver

Funny thing about the volatile and biased French crowds. While they'd prefer to be cheering a countryman and giving his foreign opponent merry hell, if there was no Frenchman in the game, they'd always support a Continental player over an Englishman, an American, or an Australian.

The next point - that's all you must think about.

It occurred to me that it would benefit me to play without emotion - well, without emotion others could see, anyway. Card players profited from having a poker face so opponents wouldn't know how good or bad their hand was, and I figured a deadpan expression would work in tennis, too.

I'm usually pretty good in the garden.

Players who win on a clay surface are those who can control the ball, playing steadily and accurately from the back-court, keeping the ball in play and moving it around with changes of speed and spin, and resisting the temptation to over-hit.

I don't know much about Mauresmo apart from the fact she played great tennis. Is she a good technician? I don't know those parameters.

Tennis was a big part of my life from as far back as I can remember.

As a tennis player, you have a record, and that is what counts. I feel like I enjoyed myself, and I'm proud of what I accomplished.

There's a lot of ingredients go into being a good tennis player.

Camaraderie builds. We travelled together to Rome, Paris, Wimbledon, the U.S., lots of places. In a way, I miss it right now. My opponents were also my best friends.

I saw Kyrgios down in Australia. He played some very good tennis, won two or three matches, and has done the same here at Wimbledon. I think Australia's got a good prospect in Kyrgios.

An otherwise happily married couple may turn a mixed doubles game into a scene from Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf.

It can be a daunting prospect for any player to know that his opponent will never, ever quit.

The time your game is most vulnerable is when you're ahead; never let up.

Roger Federer certainly is my claim to be the best of all time - if there is such a thing. With Rafael Nadal not far behind.

Looking back, in comparison, there wasn't that much that you could do with a wooden racket. In my day, the matches were certainly much less demanding physically.

I don't want to get blase about being recognised. It's pretty amazing.

Right through school, I was a handy cricketer, a batsman and a left-arm spinner who bowled leg breaks.

Yes, I hit with heavy top-spin, but when you look at the little rackets I played with, the Maxply Dunlop, you had to hit the very centre all the time. I had my share of miss-hits.

Forty years ago, the players were like a travelling circus - we went everywhere together and were pretty good friends.

When Hoad and Rosewall were at their best, and I was a youngster, they had no qualms about saying, 'Hey kid, let's go and play.' That helped me to get up the ladder.

Each match is a huge effort from a physical point of view. You can only hit so many balls before your elbow or some part of your body is going to say, 'Hey, don't do that to me.'

When you've got your man down, rub him out.

I competed hard in the heat of the battle, and there were a few occasions where I played my best in the top matches. As for the best ever? I don't think so.