Champions keep playing until they get it right.
You have got to want to be the best before you can even begin to reach for that goal, and you have got to be prepared to sacrifice a lot to get there.
I think self-awareness is probably the most important thing towards being a champion.
I have often been asked whether I am a women or an athlete. The question is absurd. Men are not asked that. I am an athlete. I am a women.
When you oppress people either by gender, by race, by sexual orientation, when you do that and the doors become ajar, they will fly open and they will come and they have.
Sports teach you character, they teach you to play by the rules, they teach you to know what it feels like to win and lose – they teach you about life.
The main thing is to care. Care very hard, even if it is only a game you are playing.
I always listen, I ask children, I even ask adults in tennis, “What are your children playing?” And most of the time it’s not tennis. It’s pathetic.
In the seventies we had to make it acceptable for people to accept girls and women as athletes. We had to make it okay for them to be active. Those were much scarier times for females in sports.
Tennis taught me so many lessons in life. One of the things it taught me is that every ball that comes to me, I have to make a decision. I have to accept responsibility for the consequences every time I hit a ball.
My whole life has been about equal rights and opportunities. For me it really goes back to the health of mind, body and soul.
Natural talent only determines the limits of your athletic potential. It’s dedication and a willingness to discipline your life that makes you great.
Some people do have softer boundaries.
No matter how tough, no matter what kind of outside pressure, no matter how many bad breaks along the way, I must keep my sights on the final goal, to win, win, win-and with more love and passion than the world has ever witnessed in any performance.
Women get the attention when we get into the men’s arena, and that’s sad.