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| The Quest for Quotes |
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"This [defeat] has taught me a lesson, but I'm not sure what it is." (John McEnroe) "That shot knocked the stuffing out of his sails!" (Fru McMillan) "Noah always beats Curren. He has a sort of Houdini against him." (John Lloyd) "There is Peter Graf, Steffi's father, with his head on his chin." (Dan Maskell) "He slips . . . but manages to regroup himself." (Dan Maskell) "She puts her head down and bangs it straight across the line." (Ann Jones) "Even when he has to move back, he moves back so that he's moving forwards!" (Mark Cox) "He's now letting Chang play his own game - and he does that better than anyone." (Christine Janes) "Chris Lloyd came out of the dressing room like a pistol." (Virginia Wade) "Strangely enough, Kathy Jordan is getting to the net first, which she always does." (Fred Perry) "Ann's got to take her nerve by the horns." (Virgina Wade) "Lloyd did what he achieved with that shot." (Jack Bannister) "Diane - keeping her head beautifully on her shoulders." (Ann Jones) "Zivojinovic seems to be able to pull the big bullet out of the top drawer." (BBC commentator Mike Ingham) "If she gets the jitters now, then she isn't the great champion that she is." (Max Robertson) "McEnroe has got to sit down and work out where he stands." (Fred Perry) "He's got his hands on his knees and holds his head in despair." (Peter Jones) "The Gullikson twins here. An interesting pair, both from Wisconsin." (Dan Maskell) "And here's Zivojinovic, six foot six inches tall and fourteen pounds ten ounces." (Dan Maskell) "Martina, she's got several layers of steel out there like a cat with nine lives." (Virginia Wade) "Chip Hooper is such a big man that it is sometimes difficult to see where he is on the court." (Mark Cox) "That shot he's got to obliterate from his mind a little bit." (Mark Cox) "Those two volleys really could be the story of this match summed up at the end of it." (Barry Davies) "These ball boys are marvellous. You don't even notice them. There's a left handed one over there. I noticed him earlier." (Max Robertson) "It's quite clear that Virginia Wade is thriving on the pressure now that the pressure on her to do well is off." (Harry Carpenter) "Lendl has remained throughout as calm as the proverbial iceberg." (Dan Maskell) "Strawberries, cream and champers flowed like hot cakes." (Radio 2) "She comes from a tennis playing family. Her father's a dentist." (BBC 2) "He certainly looks older than he did last year." (Mark Cox) "He was a great tennis player, rather like a chess player, always trying to thread the ball through the eye of a needle." (Talk Radio Commentator) "He's serving now to increase his scoreline." (Bill Threlfall) "The pace of this match is really accelerating, by which I mean it's getting faster all the time." (David Coleman) "She [Monica Seles] has so much control of the racket with those double-handed wrists." (Virginia Wade) "And when Chrissie is playing well I always feel that she is playing well." (Ann Jones) "When Martina is tense it helps her relax." (Dan Maskell) "We haven't had any more rain since it stopped raining." (Harry Carpenter) "Billie Jean King, with the look on her face that says she can't believe it, because she never believes it, and yet, somehow, I think she does." (Max Robertson) "It was all right until the sun came out and then everything started getting warmer." (Jo Durie) "I'm not sure exactly what his points are, but without even knowing what his points are, I'd say he has some good points." (John McEnroe on Wayne Ferreira's rebellion against the ATP) "Sure, I've been on the Tube...I caught it to Eastbourne once." (Serena Williams) "It's cool, overcast and cloudy here - but in a few moments two great players will take the long walk down the tunnel and emerge into the Melbourne sunshine." (John Alexander) "There's no doubt there are issues with clay. Our issues have issues that are issues right now. That's not a secret." (Andy Roddick) "Baa." (Andy Roddick on being asked: 'Name a female farmyard animal which sounds like a letter of the alphabet' during his appearance on the Weakest Link quiz show) "That's one of the best sets I've seen him play, although I should preface that by saying I haven't seen him play before." (John McEnroe) "I'm not worried about the weekend, I'm worried about Saturday." (Pete Sampras) "Let's hope his nerves will run through his veins." (John McEnroe, commentating for the BBC) "She [Serena Williams] played some great shots, but so did I, and that was the only difference." (Jennifer Capriati) "Tim Henman's injured shoulder has raised its ugly head again." (Jonathan Overend, Radio Five Live commentator) "I'd rather be No. 2 in Chile and No. 1 in the world." (Nicolas Massu) "There are hundreds of players like her in America." (Tracy Austin, after beating 13-year-old Steffi Graf in 1982) "Unbelievable, yet, what else could it be?" (Jim Courier) "You'd have to think that if he'd been around today, Rod Laver would have been Rod Laver." (Jim Courier) "They said 'Well job, good done'." (Tszvetana Pironkova on being asked about the players' reaction to her defeat of Venus Williams in the 2006 Australian Open) "I've always said I'm a good horse but I'm still an underdog." (Martina Hingis) "Lleyton Hewitt... his two greatest strengths are his legs, his speed, his agility and his competitiveness." (Pat Cash) "Tim Henman, I guess, is sitting in the locker room, pacing up and down." (John Inverdale) "She [Dokic] left the court with a face as long as thunder." (John Inverdale) "Here we see Andre Sa, who, never having won a competitive match, has reached the Wimbledon quarter-final." (John McEnroe) "Andre Sa is playing close to his potential - maybe even above it." (Boris Becker) "It's been predictable, in the sense of 'expect the unexpected'." (John McEnroe) "He has great pressure on his shoulders internally." (BBC Radio 5 Live) "Tennis is a funny game; unbelievable highs and the lows are just as low." (John McEnroe) "First thing is, it's inevitable. The second thing is, it's going to happen anyway." (Gerald Williams on the dangers of building up Andy Murray) "Obviously, like Wembley is synonymous with tennis, snooker is synonymous with Sheffield." (Richard Caborn, British Minister for Sport) "Federer is just the third person ever to achieve this impossible feat." (BBC Radio 5 Live) "Henman and Coria have met three times in the past and they've won one apiece." (Annabel Croft) "It would have been better if I had won, but reaching the final was perfect". (Andy Murray) "My shoulder is still not where I want it to be." (Maria Sharapova) "A win's a win, unless it is not a win, and then it's not a win." (Venus Williams) "Becker had to play every day of the second week - eight days in a row." (BBC Commentator during the 2007 Wimbledon Championships) "I think it feels higher, and sometimes I think it feels lower." (Serena Williams commenting on the new, blue Plexicushion courts at the 2008 Australian Open) If you enjoyed reading these quotes, click here to enjoy the quirky dialogue in SIDESPIN. 
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"The key to the match might have been his serving. Maybe I should have concentrated harder on watching them go by me, I don't know." (Andy Roddick) "Some of these young girl players shouldn't be allowed out alone, they might fell me with one hand." (Abe Segal) "If I didn't play tennis I probably would have to see a psychiatrist." (Arthur Ashe) "As long as I can get angry then I play well. If I play well I can beat everybody. I am happy because I am getting angry." (Ilie Nastase) "Tennis is a fine balance between determination and tiredness." (Virginia Wade) "The serve was invented so that the net could play." (Bill Cosby) "I started when I was 4, but I didn't play seriously until I was 8." (Kathy Rinaldi) "I don't go out there to love my enemy. I go out there to squash him." (Jimmy Connors) "Equality? They ought to play the women's final on opening day. Everybody knows who's going to be in it." (Jimmy Connors) "I wonder if she knows what's going on yet. That's great. She's winning. Wait'll she learns how to choke." (Billie Jean King about Tracy Austin) "I didn't aspire to be a good sport - 'champion' was good enough for me." (Fred Perry) "I am the best tennis player who cannot play tennis." (Ion Tiriac) "My goal one day is to be in the same sentence as Rod Laver and Ken Rosewall." (Pete Sampras) "I don't make friends with the girls I'm playing against. It would be too painful to beat them." (Virginia Wade) "Winners aren't popular, losers often are." (Virginia Wade) "In America you're conditioned to regard everything as a contest. You have to make the Ten Best Dressed List, win this, win that. It drives me nuts sometimes. Who cares, for Christ's sake?" (Arthur Ashe) "I was always rather nasty. I was willing to be friends with the Devil, just to cross the bridge." (Ilie Nastase) "Sometimes I feel like tap-dancing, screeching, unscrewing light bulbs, pulling curtains, combing hair, doing knee bends, handstands and turning somersaults out there." (Ilie Nastase) "If you put two monkeys on to play you'd still pack the centre court." (Neil Fraser) "One day when a linesman starts to laugh I swear I will hit the guy over the head with my racket. I think it will be the end of my career, but I will be happy." (Ilie Nastase) "At the end I couldn't hear what the Queen was saying to me. But it was just great to see her lips moving." (Virginia Wade) "The cheerleaders . . . wait . . . there are none." (Andy Roddick, on what keeps him playing tennis) "My tattoo is a cross, a rose and a shark. A cross is a cross, a rose like love and a shark is a pretty tough animal." (Goran Ivanisevic) "It's like a movie. I make the movie, but I don't know the end. That's it." (Goran Ivanisevic) "I call tennis the McDonald's of sport - you go in, they make a quick buck out of you, and you're out." (Pat Cash) "The trouble with me is that every match I play against five opponents: umpire, crowd, ball boys, court, and myself." (Goran Ivanisevic) "After I won a match at a tournament I tried to repeat everything I did the day I won. Before my next match, I ate the same food, I went to the same restaurant etc. Sometimes it got very boring." (Goran Ivanisevic) "I still break racquets, but now I do it in a positive way." (Goran Ivanisevic) "Actually, I tossed it nicely - landed nicely, like airplane. No warning, beautiful. That's the art of throwing racquets." (Goran Ivanisevic) "Is that the longest fifth set ever? It was? So, no, I've never played one longer than that!" (Andy Roddick) "It'll certainly give the pigeons something to do." (Pat Cash, on being inducted into the Australian Hall of Fame and unveiling a bust of himself) "The wind was blowing, the dogs were barking, something got in my eye." (Andy Roddick, explaining a defeat to Greg Rusedski) "My neck is getting sore here." (Andy Roddick, facing ace after ace from Goran Ivanisevic) "When I won Wimbledon, I said to God: just let me win this one tournament and I won’t play another match. Maybe God’s telling me to go home, but I don’t want to go home. We are negotiating at the moment." (Goran Ivanisevic) "If I can’t serve on grass, I can maybe help cut the grass, paint the lines and serve some strawberries." (Goran Ivanisevic) "I don't want to live and die with every point that's being played out there now. I'm going to let my coach live and die with every point." (Andy Roddick) "If I wore a sleeveless shirt, people would try to feed me after the match." (Andy Roddick) "I was happy to get to No. 4 because Brad, that was what he had on me - 'Yeah, yeah, I was 4 in the world, you're only 5.' So he's lost that line this week." (Andy Roddick about Brad Gilbert) "I can go on the women's tour with this second serve." (Goran Ivanisevic commenting on his shoulder problems) "The day I stop feeling the pressure and I'm just enjoying myself and taking it easy is when I'm 35, asking for a wild card and playing mixed doubles with Arnaud Clement." (Amelie Mauresmo) "The best doubles pair in the world is John McEnroe and anyone else." (Peter Fleming) “Lady, can you speak up a little bit? Indianapolis is a little far from Europe - I can’t hear you." (Marat Safin) "It's just like you expected - Edberg, Lendl, McEnroe and Becker." (Patrick McEnroe on reaching the semi-finals of the Australian Open) "I cannot give you the answer. He says yes, but, you know, he has like seven Fridays in a week." (Marat Safin on being asked if Yevgeny Kafelnikov will retire) "Whoever said, 'It's not whether you win or lose that counts,' probably lost." (Martina Navratilova) "Not yet. It's my first day on the job. Give me some time." (Marat Safin, on not breaking a racket during his first match of 2002) "If Pete's child is a girl, my son will like her; if he's a boy, my son will defeat him." (Andre Agassi) "She is woman . . . I am man." (Marat Safin, on being asked the difference between him and Anna Kournikova) "Close? Of course it was close. Thank you, Captain Obvious. Thanks very much." (Andy Roddick, when Gerry Armstrong refused to overrule a call) "You usually feel like you're playing uphill against them." (Mark Knowles on playing against Mark Woodforde and Todd Woodbridge) "Be lucky, guess the corner, close your eyes and hope there is a God. You have to be a little religious to break his serve." (Magnus Larsson on the key to breaking the Pete Sampras serve) "I can't believe he is dumping me, his buddy for seven years, for a kid he's never seen before." (Paul Haarhuis complaining about his doubles partner Jacco Eltingh flying home from the US Open for the birth of his son) "I played a great first point." (Tim Henman after losing 6-0 6-3 to Pete Sampras) "Pressure is a privilege - it only comes to those who earn it." (Billie Jean King) "I threw the kitchen sink at him but he went to the bathroom and got his tub." (Andy Roddick on losing the 2004 Wimbledon final to Roger Federer) "Every generation has its own Goran. So I was the Goran of this generation." (Goran Ivanisevic) "I'm gonna have to start winning some of the matches to call it a rivalry!" (Andy Roddick on being asked whether he and Roger Federer had a rivalry that would last for years) "Please don't make me cry again!" (Roger Federer to BBC presenter Sue Barker after winning his second Wimbledon title) "I am going to miss everything, the guys, serving aces on 15-40, 30-40, talking to the umpire sometimes good, sometimes bad, watching the Teletubbies." (Goran Ivanisevic on playing his final match at Wimbledon) "He can't cook." (Michael Chang, on being asked to list Pete Sampras's weaknesses) "How to shake hands." (Bettina Bunge, on what she had learned from a series of rapid defeats to Martina Navratilova) "Everyone thinks my name is Jerry Laitis and they call me Mr Laitis. What can you do when you have a name that sounds like a disease?" (Vitas Gerulaitis) "They've lost my page. Somebody ripped it out. But I'm the main sponsor for the tour! I'm the guy who paid the most fines, so they should give me respect. There should be a page saying 'This is the guy who paid the most fines.' I don't exist now. I'm a ghost, so I can do whatever I want." (Goran Ivanisevic, on being left out of the 2004 ATP Player Guide) "I want to thank myself for having such a good week here." (Maggie Maleeva during a trophy presentation in Tokyo, 2004) "I don't know if he's in a class by himself, but it sure don't take long to call roll." (Gil Reyes, talking about Andre Agassi) "He told me how much he enjoyed playing me, and that he hoped it happens a lot more in the future. And that makes one of us." (Andre Agassi, on being asked what Roger Federer had said to him at the net after beating him in the Australian Open 2005) "And let that be a lesson to you all. Nobody beats Vitas Gerulaitis 17 times in a row." (Vitas Gerulaitis, on finally beating Jimmy Connors) "Yeah, I hope so. Otherwise, I'd feel lonely." (Marat Safin, on being asked if he had multiple personalities like Goran Ivanisevic) "Tim Henman has the all-time Betty Crocker draw. We're talking Easy Bake Oven." (Brad Gilbert) "The trouble is you can't play many matches when you lose them." (Jelena Dokic) "One was rushing, the other was rushing even more. So the third one came and said, 'Guys, relax. It's a lovely court. Relax. Just calm down.' Third one had to come. I had to call him. He's the emergency one. Emergency 911 call." (Goran Ivanisevic on his multiple personalities on court) "I went in on his forehand and he passed me; I went in on his backhand and he passed me; I stayed back and he passed me even though I was at the baseline." (Andy Roddick after losing to Roger Federer in the 2005 Wimbledon final) "Maybe I'll just punch him or something." (Andy Roddick after losing to Roger Federer in the 2005 Wimbledon final) "A traditional fixture at Wimbledon is the way the BBC TV commentary box fills up with British players eliminated in the early rounds." (Clive James) "I often surprise myself. You can't plan some shots that go in, not unless you're on marijuana, and the only grass I'm partial to is Wimbledon's." (Rod Laver) "The unstoppable juggernaut of women's tennis has just been run over by a Lori." (The Sun, on Steffi Graf's first round loss to Lori McNeil at Wimbledon in 1994) "Tennis is a young man's game. Until you're 25, you can play singles. From 25 to 35, you should play doubles. I won't tell you exactly how old I am, but when I played, there were 28 men on the court - just on my side of the net." (George Burns) "The difference between involvement and commitment is like ham and eggs. The chicken is involved; the pig is committed." (Martina Navratilova) "Experience is a great advantage. The problem is that when you get the experience, you're too damned old to do anything about it." (Jimmy Connors) "I'm sick of making bloody history." (Pat Rafter after losing the thrilling 2001 Wimbledon final to Goran Ivanisevic) "I've been hearing about this. It's either the changing of the guard or I'm supposed to be passing him something. Is it a torch? Is it a flag? Maybe it's a baton. There's this mystery thing that I'm supposed to be passing to Andy, and he's welcome to it. Please pass it on to him." (Tim Henman after losing to fellow Briton Andy Murray in Basle, 2005) "No, actually I wanted to play five. I definitely wanted to try to lose that fourth set and test the waters in the fifth." (Andy Roddick) "As good as anybody not named Roger." (Andy Roddick, on his chances of winning the 2005 US Open) "It's called Retail Therapy." (Maria Sharapova, on going shopping after an Australian Open defeat to Serena Williams) "Now I like it again." (Roger Federer, on being asked what he thought about his rivalry with Rafael Nadal after beating the Spaniard in the 2006 Wimbledon final for the first time in five meetings) "Whatever I said last year, just copy it. I'm sure it still fits." (Andy Roddick after losing in the first round at the 2006 French Open) "I used to, like, hit for a half hour and then go eat Cheetos the rest of the day, come out and drill forehands. Now I'm really trying to make it happen, being professional, really going for it, and I miss my Cheetos." (Andy Roddick) "If this match were being played on water, Roddick would be drowning while Federer would be walking on it." (BBC commentator, Chris Bailey) "I think the medical term for the injury is 'the bottom of my ass hurts.'" (Andy Roddick) "I love Wimbledon. But why don't they stage it in the summer?" (Vijay Amritraj during the rain-drenched 2007 Championships) "She's like a wasp at a barbecue. She won't go away." (Chris Bradnam commenting on Ana Ivanovic's persistence during her Wimbledon 2007 semi-final against Venus Williams) "People keep asking me: how is this possible? Who knows? Maybe it's the radiation left after the Nato bombings." (Janko Tipsarevic, explaining the success of Serbian players at Wimbledon 2007) "My serve has killed a small dog ... I'm joking, I'm joking! The dog was huge!" (Andy Roddick) "Because I guess I made some mistakes." (Venus Williams on why her unforced error count was so high) "I could tell you, but I'd have to kill you." (Serena Williams to courtside interviewer who wanted to know the content of the notes she reads at changeovers) "I played really well. So I'd like to thank myself." (Dmitry Tursunov at a presentation ceremony in Perth) "I don't think anyone ever feared him in the locker room." (Todd Martin, on being asked if he thought the ageing Pete Sampras had finally lost the fear factor in the locker room)
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"I realise he big star now, but sometimes I feel like dog trainer who teach dog manners and graces and just when you think dog knows how he should act with nice qualities, dog make big puddle and all is wasted." (Ion Tiriac about Ilie Nastase) "I'll chase that son of a bitch Borg to the ends of the earth. I'll be waiting for him. I'll dog him everywhere. Every time he looks round he'll see my shadow." (Jimmy Connors) "It's all your fault - but nothing personal!" (Andy Roddick, to an umpire) "Sure I know where the press room is - I just look for where they throw the dog meat." (Martina Navratilova) "Pete is a step and a half slower." (Greg Rusedski after losing to Pete Sampras in the US Open) "Against him I don't need to be a step and a half quicker." ( Pete Sampras responding to Greg Rusedski's criticism - he went on to win the title! ) "She's not real any more. She doesn't really like tennis. You can tell. She's not playing from the heart. It's all contrived. She just wants to look good." (Mats Wilander talking about Serena Williams) "Umpiring, the only job in the world where you can screw up on a daily basis and still have one!" (Andy Roddick) "She doesn't sleep. At night she seems to turn into a vampire." (Goran Ivanisevic on the joys of fatherhood) "Look, Nastase, we used to have a famous cricket match in this country called Gentlemen versus Players. The Gentlemen were put down on the scorecard as 'Mister' because they were gentlemen. By no stretch of the imagination can anybody call you a gentleman." (Wimbledon umpire, on being told to address Ilie Nastase as 'Mister') "Compared with British tennis, Mars appears brimming with life." (The Guardian newspaper) "A wading pool has more depth than women's tennis. Women's tennis is in trouble. Lindsay Davenport beat the world's 13th-ranked player Vera Zvonareva in less time it takes Andre Agassi to comb his hair ... Earlier in the tournament Australian Sam Stosur lost to Hungarian Aniko Kapros, who serves slower than a bad restaurant." ('The Australian' newspaper) "Grow a spine!" (Andy Roddick, yelling at a chair umpire) "I remember when Jimmy and I went into confession and he came out a half-hour later and I said, 'How'd it go?' He said, 'I wasn't finished. The priest said come back next Sunday.'" (Chris Evert, on Jimmy Connors) "Nastase does not have a brain; he has a bird fluttering around in his head." (Ion Tiriac) "My feelings are Yevgeny Kafelnikov should take his prize money when he is done here and go and buy some perspective." (Andre Agassi) "Thanks, but no. I want to be a winner." (Maria Sharapova on being compared to Anna Kournikova) "I just couldn't lose to a bloke wearing that shirt." (Lleyton Hewitt's take on Dominik Hrbaty's pink and black shirt with holes cut out of the back, US Open 2005) "When he was young, if I had a shot I could hit down his throat, I did. And I'd say, 'See, Jimmy, even your mother will do that to you.'" (Jimmy Connors' mother) "I really want to win a race this year. If I don't, then all the guys will start calling me Tim Henman." (Mark Webber, Australian Formula One driver) "A great coach can lead you to a place where you don't need him any more." (Andre Agassi on Brad Gilbert) "The Argentineans practise on the court for two hours a day, then they must practise in front of a mirror for two more hours saying 'I'm not guilty.'" (Vince Spadea on Argentine players and drug testing) "Plus wasn't she the first player to lose 0-and-0 in the final of a Grand Slam? That has to count for something." (Mike Bryan on Natasha Zvereva's nomination for the Tennis Hall of Fame in recognition of her achievements in doubles) "Fifteen times I played him, fifteen times he beat me. The sixteenth time I was a set and two breaks up and he still beat me. Afterwards he came to see me in the locker-room and said, 'If I had a temperature of 110, if I was on my deathbed, I wouldn't lose to you.' Real nice guy." (Brad Gilbert on his one-sided rivalry with Ivan Lendl) "I have thought about dropping an atomic bomb on Sydney but I wouldn't gain anything from it." (Damir Dokic on daughter Jelena's decision to leave Serbia and return to live in Australia) "Tim Henman . . . is the human form of beige." (Comedienne Linda Smith) "I wore that to a sixth-grade dance." (Robby Ginepri on Vince Spadea's outfit in Miami 2007) "If you read it, yours must have been one of the 10 books he sold." (James Blake on Vince Spadea's autobiographical book) "Serve like me. If you serve like me, you put it in the box. That's it." (Umpire Cedric Mourier's advice to Nikolay Davydenko at the 2007 Paris Masters, implying that the Russian wasn't trying against Marcos Baghdatis) "Stay in school, kids, or you might end up being an umpire." (Andy Roddick)
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"True heroism is remarkably sober, very undramatic. It is not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost, but the urge to serve others at whatever cost." (Arthur Ashe) "You can have a certain arrogance, and I think that's fine, but what you should never lose is the respect for the others." (Steffi Graf) "Tennis is a perfect combination of violent action taking place in an atmosphere of total tranquillity." (Billie Jean King) "I just try to concentrate on concentrating." (Martina Navratilova) "It's one-on-one out there, man. There ain't no hiding. I can't pass the ball." (Pete Sampras) "Triumph and disaster are not the impostors - there have to be winners and losers in sport - it's cheers and jeers that should be treated just the same." (D.W., tennisontheline) "Jim Courier did a great job of showing the rest what is possible. He could only hit forehands, but almost every one could have been a winner. But Jim struggled when others learned to hit the ball just as hard. Many look at Andy (Roddick) as being a similar animal, and it could well be in a few years everybody hits the ball as hard as him." (Todd Martin) "Labels are for filing. Labels are for clothing. Labels are not for people." (Martina Navratilova) "It is very dangerous to have your self-worth riding on your results as an athlete." (Jim Courier) "If I don't practise the way I should, then I won't play the way that I know I can." (Ivan Lendl) "The moment of victory is much too short to live for that and nothing else." (Martina Navratilova) "I love the winning, I can take the losing, but most of all I love to play." (Boris Becker) "From what we get, we can make a living; what we give, however, makes a life." (Arthur Ashe) "If I were to say, 'God, why me?' about the bad things, then I should have said, 'God, why me?' about the good things that happened in my life." (Arthur Ashe) "You've got to get to the stage in life where going for it is more important than winning or losing." (Arthur Ashe) "A strong body listens. It obeys. A weak body commands. If you're body is weak it tells you what to do. If you're body is strong it'll actually listen to you when you tell it to do something. If you build it right you can overcome some of the obstacles of age and recovery." (Andre Agassi) "That is what is most special about achieving equality - the positive signal that it will send the world over to the next generation of girls dreaming of winning Wimbledon or becoming a scientist or going to the moon as an astronaut." (Maria Sharapova on the decision to award women equal prize money at Wimbledon in 2007)
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"In America you're conditioned to regard everything as a contest. You have to make the Ten Best Dressed List, win this, win that. It drives me nuts sometimes. Who cares, for Christ's sake?" (Arthur Ashe) "When I am playing well I think I play such boring tennis." (Virginia Wade) "Does everyone in this silly game have to be so serious?" (Dominique Nastase, wife of Ilie) "Whoever stole it is spending less money than my wife." (Ilie Nastase explaining why he failed to report the theft of his credit card) "If I don't win tonight I guess the sun will still come up in the morning." (Arthur Ashe) "Losses are always a relief. They take a burden off me, make me feel more normal. If I win several tournaments in a row I get so confident I'm in a cloud. If I lose I go back to the dressing room and I'm no better nor worse than anyone else. A loss gets me eager again." (Chris Evert) "At one point in your life you have the thing you want or the reasons why you don't." (Andy Roddick) "I must have. I remember the bar across the street." (Rod Laver, on being asked if he had ever played in West Orange, New Jersey before) "If you screw things up in tennis, it's 15-love. If you screw up in boxing, it's your ass." (Randall "Tex" Cobb) "It's like love. When you look too hard, you don't find it. When you let it happen naturally, it comes." (Marat Safin) "Today I smash rackets for tomorrow we die." (Marat Safin) "I didn't have fun at all today, although I played a very good match and won in straight sets. It's not easy - he's my best friend on the tour." (Carlos Moya, unable to celebrate after beating Fernando Vicente) "With me, anything is possible. When I come on the court, you know, anything happens. So they always expect something. Something is gonna happen. But today, nothing happen. Today was show but no actors in the show, you know." (Goran Ivanisevic) "Tennis is a huge part of my life, but I don't base my self-value or my self-worth or the quality of my life on my results on the court." (Venus Williams) "I made a mistake. But we need to get things into perspective. We didn't invade Iraq. This is a furry ball going over a net." (ATP Tour chief, Etienne de Villiers, encountering problems with the round-robin format he introduced in 2007)
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"When I lost the first set, I understood I had no more choice than winning the next two." (Justine Henin-Hardenne) "I had a feeling today that Venus Williams would either win or lose." (Martina Navratilova) "From the beginning, I really felt the French Open would be different from the other majors. First of all, because it's played on clay." (Pam Shriver) "The difference between night and day is, er, night and day." (Tim Henman) "Soderling wanted that first set - it was part of his game plan." (Chris Bradnam, Eurosport commentator) "I don't understand what is going on. In practice, I beat everybody, but I lose all my matches. I am going home to practise and sort things out." (Sergei Bruguera) Andrew Castle: "Where are all these Serbians from?" Greg Rudseski: "Serbia?" (during Wimbledon 2007)
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"When I'm 32? Hopefully I'll have made my mark with a few different movies, some scary ones and some comedies. I'm really funny, I have a great personality on the camera." (Serena Williams) "I would be really excellent in a horror film because I have a great scream. I'd be really good in a comedy too. I'm top, top, top quality." (Serena Williams) "I don't want to sound like I'm pontificating or anything but I think I'm really good at that - I'm the best. Besides Versace, Armani, I'm right up there." (Serena Williams on her skills as a fashion designer) "It's amazing, but I guess that happens when you become overly famous. Every week now, I get more famous." (Serena Williams on the 'bobblehead' doll created in her image) "I'm playing to around 30% of my potential - you'd be shocked at what I could do." (Serena Williams) "I'm an unbelievable designer. I don't know how I know and just do these things. I just start sketching and then I just know the colors and I always know the forecast. I know green and purple are going to be hot. I was born to be a designer. I worked hard to be a tennis player, I don't work hard to be a designer." (Serena Williams) "People seem to forget that Anna (Kournikova) isn't in the picture anymore. It's Maria-time now." (Maria Sharapova) "I'm really exciting. I smile a lot, I win a lot, and I'm really sexy." (Serena Williams) "A lot of these young girls, they don't even know what the game is about. They have never seen a drop shot, a slice and all the mixture and variety I have." (Martina Hingis) "I'm like a chameleon. I can kind of change and get my game going to whatever the situation is. If I play well, which I don't think I've even reached yet at all in this tournament, it's really hard for anyone to beat me." (Serena Williams at the 2007 Australian Open) "It's pretty hard being a tennis player and Mother Theresa at the same time and that's just the way it is." (Maria Sharapova) "With my website, I'm really interactive. I've written a lot of things about me." (Serena Williams)
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"I just think she made a lot of lucky shots and I made a lot of errors." (Serena Williams after losing to Justine Henin in the 2007 US Open quarter-finals)
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"Today, something didn't feel right. I guess it's the puberty's fault." (Sesil Karatantcheva, after a 6-0 6-1 loss to Maria Sharapova)
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"I don't have any desire to talk about women's tennis, because men's tennis is more attractive. It is easy to be successful in the women's, and you can't even compare the two. It is like soccer and women's soccer - there isn't even such a thing as women's soccer. They just invented a sport that didn't even exist. To play for an hour and earn the same amount of money that the men earn after we sweat for five hours is a joke and irrational." (Noam Okun) "At Wimbledon, the ladies are simply the candles on the cake." (John Newcombe) "Move your fat butt!" (Marcelo Rios addressing Monica Seles in a lunch queue at Wimbledon in 1997) "I may have exaggerated a bit when I said that 80 per cent of the top women tennis players are fat pigs. It's only 75 per cent." (Richard Krajicek)
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"You're winning a lot of matches this year, so I'm trying to get some positive energy from you." (Michael Llodra on jumping out of Ivan Ljubicic's locker completely naked) "She shaves her hands?" (Mary Carillo, on hearing that Mary Pierce was suffering from a cut on her hand that occurred while shaving) "It felt like you're in the Sahara and you just see the hills and there's no ending." (Kevin Kim on being asked what it was like playing against Rafael Nadal in the 2006 French Open) "I'm in the final, I played the final, I lost, it's just amazing." (Marcos Baghdatis on losing to Roger Federer in the 2006 Australian Open final) "A wallaby pooed on me, so that wasn't very nice." (Andy Murray on exploring Australia) "I'm proud to be a symbol like the army knife or the mountains." (Roger Federer on having his picture enshrined on a Swiss postage stamp) "Lately, my mind is like an orchestra. If you don't have the conductor, you don't know what to do. One guy is playing jazz, one guy is playing rock and roll, another classical. It's a big mess." (Goran Ivanisevic)
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"A man's reach should exceed his grasp - or what's a heaven for?" (Robert Browning) "We can do anything we want as long as we stick to it long enough" (Helen Keller) "Making mistakes simply means you are learning faster" (Weston H Agor) "In the middle of a difficulty lies opportunity" (Albert Einstein) "Your aspirations are your possibilities" (Samuel Johnson) "Nobody can give you wiser advice than yourself" (Cicero) "You must do the thing you think you cannot do" (Eleanor Roosevelt) "Mistakes are the portals of discovery" (James Joyce) "Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail" (Ralph Waldo Emerson) "Always bear in mind that our own resolution to succeed is more important than any one thing" (Abraham Lincoln) "No vision and you perish. No ideal, and you're lost. Your heart must ever cherish some faith at any cost. Some hope, some dream to cling to, some rainbow in the sky, some melody to sing to, some service that is high" (Harriet Du Autermont) "It's not the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog." (Archie Griffen) "Pigeons flock. Eagles soar. You can aspire to be either." (D.W., tennisontheline) "It's a mental game. Reach higher by growing taller inside." (D.W., tennisontheline) "You play your best when you believe you deserve to win. If you work harder than your opponent, don't you deserve to win?" (D.W., tennisontheline) "Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." (Mark Twain) "It's not the critic who counts, nor the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of the deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errors and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotions and spends himself in a worthy cause; who at least knows in the end the triumph of his achievement, and who at worst, if he fails, at least fails while doing greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory or defeat." (Theodore Roosevelt) "Falling doesn't make you a failure, staying down does." (Unknown) "You never really lose, until you quit trying." (Unknown) "You'll never know how far you can go unless you take one more step." (D.W., tennisontheline) "Be bold. If you're going to make an error, make a doozy, and don't be afraid to hit the ball." (Billie Jean King) "There is only one number one. It is a lonely spot but it has got the best view of all." (Jimmy Connors) "There are no great people, only great challenges that ordinary people may undertake." (D.W., tennisontheline) "Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal." (Henry Ford) "Hard work is the only way to go. Strive to be the best you can be and remember that when you try your best, you can't ask any more from yourself, and people can't ask any more from you." (Michael Chang) "Think it, believe it, achieve it!" (D.W., tennisontheline) "The word timshel — 'Thou mayest' — that gives a choice. It might be the most important word in the world. That says the way is open. That throws it right back on a man." (John Steinbeck) "Where we are met with cynicism and doubt and fear and those who tell us that we can't, we will respond with that timeless creed that sums up the spirit of the American people in three simple words: Yes. We. Can." (Barack Obama)
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