27 TENNIS QUOTES FROM THE GREATEST PLAYERS





SPORTSMANSHIP




"The roughest thing I ever said to an umpire was  'are you sure?" 

 -  Rod Laver


OUTSIDER

 


"I'm not wanting to be understood or liked, like me or not, I don't care. I am an outsider, that is the way I was brought up'.

 -  Jimmy Connors 


FOCUS



"The ideal state is to be physically loose and mentally tight."    

 -  Arthur Ashe


COMMITMENT 




"The difference between involvement and commitment is like ham and eggs. The chicken was involved, but the pig was committed."

  -  Martina Navratilova 


STRATEGY



"Never change a winning game, always change a losing one."

 -  Bill Tilden 


KILLER INSTINCT


"When you've got your man down, rub him out." 
 - Rod Laver


LOSING


"You never really cancel the fear of losing, you keep challenging it." 

 -  Arthur Ashe 


CONCENTRATION

 

"Concentration is born on the practice court... you must mentally treat your practice sessions as matches, concentrating on every ball you hit."
-  Martina Navratilova

                                                                                          

REBELLION


"Let me say that the path I did take for a brief period of my life was not of reckless drug use, hurting others, but it was a path of quiet rebellion, of a little experimentation of a darker side of my confusion in a confusing world, lost in the midst of finding my identity."
 - Jennifer Capriati


OPPONENT


"I see tendencies, I see body language." 

-  Michael Chang

JOY

 "If you watch Rafael Nadal play tennis, you can only respond with amazement and great admiration. He is an incredible athlete with so much discipline, so much concentration and someone who likes to put a lot of passion into every point. Words fail to come out of me to describe his game appropriately. I've rarely seen anyone who approaches a ball with so much attention. With such passion and joy that it makes great fun to watch him. With him, you can associate everything that makes tennis so beautiful."  
 - Steffi Graf


STRENGTHS 


"I didn't have the ability to blow people off the court, so I needed my legs, my preparation and the ability to think on my feet."    
-  Michael Chang

FAME




"I'm amazed that years after I stopped playing tennis, people still recognize me in restaurants and ask for my autograph. " 
-  Bjorn Borg

EXCITEMENT


 

"I don't know why, but I love the dog eat dog nature of tennis. It's real, it's brutal and there's no hiding place - it's like a one to one street fight. I love the intensity that comes with knowing you walk off court either a winner or a loser. It's daunting but very exciting. There is no one to blame except yourself, no one cares who comes second."  
~ Pete Sampras


PREJUDICE

 
"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 those barriers."  
-  Martina Navratilova

TRADITION



"Ever since that day when I was 11 years old, and I wasn't allowed in a photo because I wasn't wearing a tennis skirt, I knew that I wanted to change the sport." 
- Billie Jean King
GREATEST
"The way I look at the top five, (Rod) Laver, (Roger) Federer, myself, Borg and (Ivan) Lendl. I think those five guys dominated their generations better than anyone. Maybe Roger will dominate better than any one of the other four. Maybe I put Andre (Agassi) as kind of six through 10 with, you know, (John) McEnroe and (Jimmy) Connors, kind of those guys. That's kind of how I see it."  
~ Pete Sampras

 

PRESSURE




"Pressure is a privilege - it only comes to those who earn it." 

- Billie Jean King


COMPLEMENTS

 


"Do you have any problems, other than that you're unemployed, a moron, and a dork?" 

- John McEnroe


HAPPINESS



 "If you become great, then you can become happy. If you're happy first, it's much more difficult to be great." 

- Ivan Lendl

 

DISAPPOINTMENT


"I have seriously thought about retiring, but that was on a good day. On a bad day I've thought about killing myself." 

- Ivan Lendl


WINNING


 

 "I haven't lost a war. No one got killed. I just lost a tennis match." - Boris Becker


SUCCESS 

"I never wanted to be the great guy or the colorful guy or the interesting guy. I wanted to be the guy who won titles."  
~ Pete Sampras

 

ART

"Tennis is more than just a sport. It's an art, like ballet. Or like a performance in the theatre."

- Bill Tilden


FATHERHOOD

 

"I met with my lawyers. They gave me all the wrong advice. For a long time I refused to accept the child was mine. I should have met her, arranged a DNA test and accepted my responsibility." 

- Boris Becker


 STROKES

 "Golfers are forever working on mechanics. My tennis swing hasn't changed in 10 years."  
~ Pete Sampras


CONCENTRATION


"If I were asked to name one aspect of tennis that is the biggest weakness of players of all levels, I would probably say concentration. However good your shots, however, fast your movement and reflexes, all is lost if the mind is not controlling every move." 

~ Ken Rosewall

 



 

 





Location: Bangkok, Thailand

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