Quotes About Tennis

That result at the French was a big break for me. I had been playing quite well up until that point but nobody really expected me to do well on clay - it was my worst surface. I had had some success on the clay but I was a set and a break up in the semi-final against Jausovec and maybe the enormity of the occasion got to me.

Clay is not my surface; everyone knows that.

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.

We have been playing every summer on clay since I was five years old, so it is an easy surface for us in Belgium.

Hard courts are faster and the bounce is lower indoors. Rafa cannot slide on this surface. He's more comfortable on clay, where he can play higher, he can play deeper.

It would be difficult to pick out one shot as my main strength, as I like all my shots, and I can do anything on any surface.

Volleying comes into grass-court tennis because it's a surface that favours the player who gets on the front foot. So if you've got an opportunity to come in and be aggressive, then finishing the points at the net is always going to be a good strategy.

I feel like I'm playing some of my best tennis on clay. I'm sliding a lot, moving a lot. I know how to adjust to the surface, so I'm loving the clay.

Movement on clay is totally different to every other surface and you have to have that balance and understanding of how to slide.

I think you've got to really keep attacking on grass, it's the hardest surface to defend on.

It has been tough to get used to hard surfaces and adjust my game - I grew up in the Netherlands playing on clay, so I love that surface the most. For my game, it is the most natural.

Clay is my favourite surface.

Punitive ghosts like steam-driven tennis courts haunt the apples in my nonexistent orchard. I remember when there were just worms out there and they danced in moonlit cores on warm September nights.

but instead of apologizing, I said, 'It's your own fault for playing tennis.

I opened my mouth to say what a horrible accident, that I was an idiot, that I hadn't been looking where I was going and it was all my fault and blah-blah-blah, but instead of apologizing, I said, 'It's your own fault for playing tennis.

We always interfere with nature. I think if tennis players continue to wear headbands they will end up killing off eyebrows, as they're there to catch sweat.

The tennis ball doesn't know how old I am. The ball doesn't know if I'm a man or a woman or if I come from a communist country or not. Sport has always broken down these barriers.

I'm not the savior of men's tennis in America. I'm just a kid trying to win a few matches.

Do I play tennis? Man, I had one of the baddest overhead rights of anyone. Bam!

My mom fed us a million balls. Dad took us to tournaments. Couldn't have done it without them. We had a happy tennis family.

My mom, she's from Ireland, coached tennis in Nigeria when she was a missionary and turned me on to it when I was young.

Tennis is like marrying for money. Love means nothing.

Winning that first game was so important; my mother always said that the first game of the second set was the chance to keep it going if you were ahead or change things if you were behind.

I never knew I was grunting, it was just part of my strokes.