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.
Tennis is the loneliest sport.
You’ve got to believe you can win. But I believe respect for the fact that you can lose is what you always have to keep in mind so that nothing suprises you.
It’s shocking how little there is to do with tennis when you’re just thinking about nothing except winning every point.
Few of us are granted the grace to know ourselves, and until we do, maybe the best we can do is be consistent.
When I was 7 years old I saw Jimmy Connors make someone carry his bag, as though he were Julius Caesar. I vowed then and there that I would always carry my own.
I’ve been criticized for not having perspective in the past and I thought that of myself many times but not there.
It never seizes to amaze me how much I enjoy playing here and how much you fans have meant to me over the years.
I had moments of my actions and words not reflecting who it is I am – if that defines a punk, then yes, absolutely.
I had my moments for sure but I wasn’t confrontational. And sometimes you get on the court and you’d find yourself very confrontational. It was all a discovery.
This sport has given me so much that my hope would be to give back as much as I can for as long as I can.
People who are interested with me have for sure gotten older over the years, for example, grandparents are coming up to me telling me they grew up watching me.
When you deal with somebody in the heat of battle, you see the best or the worst of them. So when you get through all that there is a great deal of respect.
The best predictor of future events is probably past events.
Every now and then I will play; I try to focus on charitable work. I might do it because it’s an offer I can’t refuse, so I rally and try to stay in shape and keep myself active.
Hitting the ball has never been my issue, so I can literally not pick up a racquet for two months and hit the ball, really, really nicely. I mean movement’s always an issue.
I don’t always choose to stay fit by playing tennis, because that comes with its own wear-and-tear.
I suppose you could never say never, but my experience would tell me that the most successful players in the world are gonna come from an environment that is more competitive at an early age.
If you’re ranked number one in the world it’s because you’ve earned it, and I think the only way to really get there is to have that ability and to have it nurtured in a very competitive environment at an early age.
It’s always been eclectic; you never know what you’re going to get.
Tennis is one of the only sports in America where the sport doesn’t grow with the size of the person – it just forces you to swallow the whole pill.