Great Tennis Quotes & Sayings

You will never have great tennis champions from England because of the cold and dark, but most of all because people only care about the sport for two weeks a year, and then they're on to something else. There's just not a great love of the sport there. — Monica Seles

All that proves is that most of the world is too poor to build bowling alleys, golf courses, tennis courts and baseball fields. There's hundreds of millions of poor people out there who still ain't got indoor plumbing, but that don't mean there's something great about an outhouse. Soccer is boring. I've never seen a more boring sport. — Mike Royko

I'm playing great tennis. I'm enjoying the tour, having fun with the fans off the court. I'm loving it now. — Roger Federer

What these guys are doing is great for Argentinean tennis. This is motivating other people. — Gabriela Sabatini

I prayed for my heart to soften, to forgive her, and love her for what she did give me
life, great values, a lot of tennis lessons, and the best she could do. Unfortunately, the best she could do was terrible, thee the Minister of Silly Walks trying to raise an extremely sensitive young girl, and my heart remained hardened toward her. [p. 46] — Anne Lamott

You can't be considered a great player unless you win Wimbledon. That's the way it is. — Mats Wilander

I sometimes rented a car and drove from event to event in Europe; a road trip was a great escape from the day-to-day anxieties of playing, and it kept me from getting too lost in the tournament fun house with its courtesy cars, caterers, locker room attendants, and such - all amenities that create a firewall between players and what you might call the 'real' world - you know, where you may have to read a map, ask a question in a foreign tongue, find a restaurant and read the menu posted in the window to make sure you're not about to walk into a joint that serves only exotic reptile meat. — Patrick McEnroe

What drove me to become the world's greatest bodybuilder is no different from what drives other athletes to become great tennis players or boxers or jockeys. — Arnold Schwarzenegger

A tennis racket makes a great fake guitar! — Isaac

You don't go home and talk about the great tennis courts that you played, but you do talk about the golf courses you played. — Hank Ketcham

To be honest, everything in my life outside of tennis is great. I'm doing amazing projects that, if I didn't have time off, I wouldn't be able to focus on. — Maria Sharapova

It was simple reality - most competitive tennis players in my day were privileged, spoiled, entitled and white. Also, many of them were beautiful, fit, tan and of good stock - great big hair and white teeth and long legs. Then there were the rest of us. — Anne Lamott

I love tennis! I've always felt like this because it is such a classy sport with a great, competitive flair to it. — Roger Federer

I want to be remembered as a great player, but I guess it will be as a player who got angry on a tennis court. — John McEnroe

was thinking - um, maybe you should let me do the talking." He glanced over at her. "What are you saying? That I'm scary?" "You're the scariest person I've ever met." "Thank you," he said with a wicked smile. "That's the nicest thing anyone has said to me in a long time." "No, really. You're scarier than Frankenstein." He chuckled. "You're so scary that a great white shark would put on tennis shoes and run up the beach to get away from you." His chuckle turned into a laugh. "I mean it," she said, getting into the spirit of it. "If the boogey man was in your closet, he'd stay there until you left for work." "Okay, okay," he said, holding up one hand while trying to stop laughing. "I got it. When we find the girl, you can do the talking." She nodded thoughtfully. "Yeah, that's probably a good idea. — Arthur Bradley

So there is not a lot about me that you don't know other than that I play table tennis. I'm great, I'm great at table tennis! You will look at me and go, 'How does that dude know how to play that well?' — Jamie Foxx

I don't know if tennis players feel like that but when you have a great opponent - although I didn't feel like he [ Ben Mendelsohn ] was an opponent - you just know your game is going to jack up and it's just going to raise the bar. I couldn't wait for that elevation. — John Leguizamo

I'm going to have to pick my shots and play great tennis. — Andre Agassi

Everybody is great and the chemistry is different with everyone. That is the joy of acting - you really don't know how it is going to go until you turn up. It's like playing tennis, you can't plan for the match you are going to play until you are actually up against your opponent and what happens, happens. That is the joy of being on set. — Tom Hiddleston

The great part about tennis is you can't run out the clock ... As long as we were still playing, I had a chance. — Andre Agassi

Sometimes I thought about my future, because Lynn said I should. She said it was hard to tell at this point, but someday, if I didn't go to Africa to study animals, I might be a beautiful genius tennis player. I didn't worry about it one way or another. I didn't care if I was a genius or if I was pretty or if I was good in sports. I just liked to listen to Lynn and to talk to Bera-Bera and to eat rice candies. The lady who used to live down the street could take all of her top teeth out of her mouth. She wasn't allowed to eat chewy candy. I could eat any kind of candy I wanted because I still had my baby teeth. If they rotted, I would simply grow more teeth. That was pretty great. — Cynthia Kadohata

Were our pupil's disposition so bizarre that he would rather hear a tall story than the account of a great voyage or a wise discussion; that at the sound of a drum calling the youthful ardour of his comrades to arms he would turn aside for the drum of a troop of jugglers; that he would actually find it no more delightful and pleasant to return victorious covered in the dust of battle than after winning a prize for tennis or dancing; then I know no remedy except that his tutor should quickly strangle him when nobody is looking or apprentice him to make fairy-cakes in some goodly town - even if he were the heir of a Duke - following Plato's precept that functions should be allocated not according to the endowments of men's fathers but the endowments of their souls. — Michel De Montaigne

She [Serena Williams] played some great shots, but so did I, and that was the only difference. — Jennifer Capriati

I'd rather be able to play great tennis at a slam than make eight finals of little tournaments and then lose first round of a slam. That doesn't sound too good. — Sloane Stephens

Okay, so English settlers brought rabbits with them to Australia to breed for food and stuff, right? But they escaped and basically started destroying the country, eating the vegetation, that kind of thing. So by the early 1900s, the government was trying to figure out a way to get rid of all the rabbits. Want to hear what their genius plan was? The rabbit-proof fence. Worked out great for the rabbits. Once they learned how to play badminton and got the hang of tennis on grass, they couldn't remember how they ever lived without it. Supposedly there was something like six hundred million rabbits by 1950. But you're missing the point. The point is that even though it was pretty obvious from the beginning it wasn't working, they kept right on building it - two thousand miles of it. — Elle Lothlorien

Cycling isn't a game, it's a sport. Tough, hard and unpitying, and it requires great sacrifices. One plays football, or tennis, or hockey. One doesn't play at cycling. — Jean De Gribaldy

You are better than you think you are; you can play at a higher level than you think you can; and you have the potential to beat so-called better players. If you're a competitor and not just playing for exercise (and "cardio" tennis is great), don't accept where you are; don't settle for less. Shake yourself up in whatever manner it takes and you'll get results. Like Murray and the Djoker you can turn things around and beat players who are beating you. — Anonymous

This was a special week and a special victory for me. I played some great tennis. — Marin Cilic

He knew what the Beats know and what the great tennis player knows, son: learn to do nothing, with your whole head and body, and everything will be done by what's around you. — David Foster Wallace

In the history of women's tennis the great players have come back from long absences with no problems. — Lindsay Davenport

In expert tennis, 80% of the points are won, while in amateur tennis, 80% are lost. The same is true for wrestling, chess, and investing: Beginners should focus on avoiding mistakes, experts on making great moves." Erik Falkenstein — Lucas Carlson

Tennis is a mental game. Everyone is fit, everyone hits great forehands and backhands. — Novak Djokovic

I'd like to think I could have and should have won more, but that's not the point. And I was at the point where I was playing great tennis in the mid 80s - the type of tennis people hadn't seen before - and I was very proud of that. — John McEnroe

The day you give priority to bogus ethics over human reactions, you become a loser. Human reactions are priceless. Rules should never, ever stifle emotions. Tennis is a very human game facing a great danger that it will be strangulated in a cat's cradle of unnecessary or inhumane rules. — Ted Tinling

Possessing an array of athletic gifts is something most tennis players can only dream about. Most players, if they're lucky, have one attribute that stands out
either a monster serve, great footspeed, superb touch, superior timing or innate feel for the ball. — Dave McPherson

My mom was a great tennis player, and I remember being six or seven years old watching Steffi Graf and Monica Seles in Wimbledon in my house. I've always been a tennis fan. — Tom Brady

Ivan Lendl's never going to be a great player on grass. The only time he comes to the net is to shake your hand. — Goran Ivanisevic

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

I'm a terrible musician. While the band members are great, I'm tolerated and affectionately regarded because I do movies, but if I had to make my living as a musician I would starve. I'm like a Sunday tennis player. — Woody Allen

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

It means everything, definitely. I mean, it's Wimbledon. Tennis here is tennis history. Centre Court is always great to play on. I really feel like I'm at home. I was really up and down after my title here in 2011, but I still worked hard and believed in myself, and my team believed in me as well. — Petra Kvitova

I definitely think the way the game is transforming, becoming more and more athletic, guys are great athletes out here and relying on the physical skills more than their tennis skills, almost, sometimes. So for that reason, matching up with some of these guys, I can't keep up. — Daniel Nestor

I wasn't all that attracted to writing originally. I read a great deal. My parents read a great deal. I do know that as my interest in tennis waned, my interest in academics increased. I mean, I started doing my homework in high school and discovering that it was somewhat fun. And then in college I barely even played on the team because just classes were much more interesting. — David Foster Wallace

Maybe I was accepted to Harvard only because of my tennis skills, since I definitively had no great academic achievements. I was 17 and only thought about surfing and playing tennis. I had almost never left Rio de Janeiro and had never been to the United States. — Jorge Paulo Lemann

I feel like I have as good a shot as anybody out there and I have gotten close in the past, so why not have the attitude that I can come out and play great tennis and maybe even win this tournament. — Michael Chang

It's actually what I consider legalised cheating because one of the great senses that you have on a tennis court is your ability to hear the ball come off your opponent's strings [on Sharapova grunting — John Newcombe

A great tennis career is something that a 15-year-old normally doesn't have. I hope my example helps other teens believe they can accomplish things they never thought possible. — Maria Sharapova

If she gets the jitters now, then she isn't the great champion that she is. — Max Robertson

When Arthur Ashe plays tennis, his purpose each day is to play the game in a way he has never played it before. It may be a backhand he uses, one that he may never have used before in that circumstance. His play is a fresh integration of his world at the instant of action. A really great scientist has the whole past at his disposal. At any instant he is rebuilding the world, molecule by molecule, in his subconscious. That is what you want in an athlete or a scientist. — Edwin Land

There were a lot of people shouting out. I know it's not proper tennis etiquette, but this is the first time I've ever played here that the crowd has been behind me like that. Today I felt American, you know, for the first time at the U.S. Open. So I've waited my whole career to have this moment and here it is ... It was great. It was awesome. It was like winning gold. — Venus Williams

I was never pegged to be the next great American tennis player by any means. I wasn't a prodigy. I'm a late bloomer. Whatever happens, I'm proud of what I've done. — John Isner

Receiving the Newcombe Medal for a third year in a row is an amazing honour. The Newcombe Medal is a great occasion for the Australian tennis community to come together and celebrate our sport, recognise people's achievements and contributions to Australian tennis. — Samantha Stosur

Last time I was starstruck was when I met Roger Federer. He is one of the few athletes that I really look up to - incredibly talented both on and off the track and a great role model for tennis. — Henrik Lundqvist

Everything's a real passion to me - my children, my family, my work, travel. I don't play tennis, I don't play music, but I have a great time. — Rosalyn Sussman Yalow

Why are there no great women artists?' sounds as ignorant of human geography as the query 'Why are there no Eskimo tennis teams? — Francine Du Plessix Gray

The Human Species could have been great but instead we became satisfied with lights on our tennis shoes. — George Carlin

Tennis is such an individual and competitive sport, but it is great being part of a team and getting to know the girls outside of tennis - even though we are all competing for the same thing! — Dominika Cibulkova

It's a great moment for Argentinean tennis, more on the men's side. I would like to see more on the women's side. I think we have to work a little bit more on that. — Gabriela Sabatini

Imagine a morning in late November. A coming of winter morning more than twenty years ago. Consider the kitchen of a spreading old house in a country town. A great black stove is its main feature; but there is also a big round table and a fireplace with two rocking chairs placed in front of it. Just today the fireplace commenced its seasonal roar. A woman with shorn white hair is standing at the kitchen window. She is wearing tennis shoes and a shapeless gray sweater over a summery calico dress. She is small and sprightly, like a bantam hen; but, due to a long youthful illness, her shoulders are pitifully hunched. Her face is remarkable - not unlike Lincoln's, craggy like that, and tinted by sun and wind; but it is delicate, too, finely boned, and her eyes are sherry-colored and timid. "Oh my," she exclaims, her breath smoking the windowpane, "it's fruitcake weather! — Truman Capote

I'm just glad Open tennis is here. It's great for the game. That's more important. — Pancho Gonzales

It has changed, quite a lot. It is very different now, there are quicker men, they are taller, stronger, have great stamina. The balls have also become faster. Tennis has now become a power sport. There is more depth in the game, as well, there are many more players than there used to be. The entire character of the game has changed. — Bjorn Borg

The world's No. 1 tennis player spends 90 percent of his time winning, while the world's No. 1 golfer spends 90 percent of his time losing. Golfers are great losers. — David Feherty

I like putting money back into what made my life, and tennis has been great to me. — Billie Jean King

In Argentina at various tournaments, it's great. Every day it's full, everybody's crazy about tennis, everybody wants to play tennis. — Gabriela Sabatini

Mabel Rose Chen was a perfect daughter. She knew this because everybody said it.
...
The thing about being a perfect daughter was that nobody suspected you might not be so perfect. That maybe you were fascinated by the fact that you belonged to this powerful family, and maybe you weren't so great at violin or tennis or French, but you were very, very good at spying. — Jude Watson

For sure, with golf it's not a physically demanding sport like tennis. That's what makes tennis great - you combine both things. It's a very mental sport and at the same time can be dramatically physical. But I do admire the mentality of sport more than the physicality because physical performance is much easier to practice than mental performance. — Rafael Nadal

Another factor is the education and culture in which you grow up. I didn't grow up in the culture of victory, where you are expected to be or have to be, the best. It was not at all like that in my family. Tennis was really a hobby. If it led to something, great. If not, there were other things in life. I think that was something I was missing at some points in my career, because when I see Hingis or the Williamses, you see how they were educated for this: to win, to be the best, a bit the American mentality. Number one. Number one. Number one. I didn't have this. — Amelie Mauresmo

Bill Tilden was the greatest - and most improbably great - tennis player of the age. — Bill Bryson

Will I have to explain to my daughter that her brother is gonna make more money doing the exact same job because he's a man? If they both played sports since they were three years old, they both worked just as hard, but because he's a boy, they're gonna give him more money? Like, how am I gonna explain that to her? In tennis we've had great pioneers that paved the way - including Venus [Williams], who fought so hard for Wimbledon to pay women the same prize money they pay men, and Billie Jean King, who is one of the main reasons Title IX exists. — Serena Williams

Somewhere out there are a few men with more innate talent at golf than Jack Nicklaus, or women with greater ability at tennis than Chris Evert or Martina Navratilova, but they will never lift a club or swing a racket and therefore will never find out how great they could have been. Instead, they'll be content to sit and watch stars perform on television. — Donald Trump

This trophy is so special in the world of tennis and it feels great. — Amelie Mauresmo

Serena and I have done some great career planning, and we're playing really at the peak of our tennis right now. I think tennis has been a sport where people play this insane schedule from 14 years old, so of course at 26, it's over. We've really paced ourselves. — Venus Williams

You have to believe on the court. In the end, it's mental. In these moments against a great champion like Rafa, you have to believe. It's all about stepping in and taking your chances. I always believed, but it's a process of learning. — Novak Djokovic

I had a great tennis career. I have no regrets. But to find peace with yourself, and to finally be with your family - I'm probably the happiest guy in the world. — Bjorn Borg

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

No matter what happens, tennis is still tennis: You can see a lot of great matches, a lot of new people. — Marat Safin

I was a very good tennis player in Ottawa, Canada - nationally ranked when I was, like, 13. Then I moved to Los Angeles when I was 15, and everyone in L.A. just killed me. I was pretty great in Canada. Not so much in Los Angeles. — Matthew Perry

One may do many things in a long life. I also played a great deal of tennis and brought up three children. There's time for all sorts of adventures. — Audrey Niffenegger

I guess it's like James Joyce when he was a kid, you know. He hung out with all the great writers of the day, and he was a little kid, like, with tennis shoes on, and they said 'Look at this lame!' They didn't use those words in those days. They said 'God, here comes this nut.' And he told them, 'I'm great!' And he sat with them, and he loved to be with them, and it ended up that he was great. — Art Pepper