What you feel doesn’t matter in the end; it’s what you do that makes you brave.
A great coach can lead you to a place where you don’t need him any more.
You have to have the mentality of executing your game when you don’t feel like there’s a lot of hope. I think the best feeling is when somebody pushes you to the limit and you dig down a little bit extra. By the same token, you also need a little luck. Sometimes they come together.
Big dreams are so damn tiring.
Nothing can substitute for just plain hard work. I had to put in the time to get back. And it was a grind. It meant training and sweating every day. But I was completely committed to working out to prove to myself that I still could do it.
There’s a lot of good waiting for you on the other side of tired. Get yourself tired...
Freed from the thoughts of winning, I instantly play better. I stop thinking, start feeling. My shots become a half-second quicker, my decisions become the product of instinct rather than logic.
You don’t cheat anybody out of their experience, whatever it is.
Being number two sucks.
This is the only perfection there is, the perfection of helping others.
If I don’t do what I need to do to win, I won’t win, no matter who is on the other side of the net.
To be inspired – that’s the secret.
Tennis is a very objective sport in the sense that the scoreboard doesn’t lie.
Success doesn’t always come in the form of a trophy. Keep striving for success.
I always felt tennis and winning was a byproduct of doing everything right.
I envy Pete Sampras’s dullness. I wish I could emulate his spectacular lack of inspiration.
It’s easier to live with disappointment than regret.
My accomplishments do not live up to my tennis game. Most people have to work really hard and win some big matches, and then they get money and popularity. For me it has been the reverse of everybody else. The exact opposite.
Tennis was always sort of a – a learning. It was a vehicle for me to discover a lot about myself.
I play tennis for a living even though I hate tennis, hate it with a dark and secret passion and always have.