Tennis Court Quotes & Sayings

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

I grew up on the tennis court with lots of other kids. There were like 40 kids all afternoon and I was one of the youngest ones, so I always had to chase everybody to keep up. — Martina Hingis

From the outside, Rick Rubin's house above Zuma Beach is a generic millionaire beach home. There's a rarely used tennis court and a circular drive. — Stephen Rodrick

Tennis players need to be very focused and very intense, and I can show tennis players are not just hitting the little yellow ball and moving in between the white lines. I'm always trying to show my personality outside of the court. — Tomas Berdych

There's a difference between when this happens in an artist's studio or on the tennis court versus inside the barrel of a fifty-foot wave. When you tap into that much force while pushing the absolute limits of human performance, that's more than just an imaginative breakthrough - that's bending reality to your will. — Steven Kotler

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

If you go out eight times and play tennis eight times this week, yeah, it's the same rules, but it's a different game every time you're out on that court. You're working on a different part of your game every time you're out on that court; your partner's working on a different part of their game, and the act of being watched changes it. — Kevin Spacey

As soon as I step on the court I just try to play tennis and don't find excuses. You know, I just lost because I lost, not because my arm was sore. — 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'm more in that Rafa Nadal high-energy high-octane mold out there. I wear that emotion on the court. That's how I play my best tennis. People either like that or not. And I can't change that: that's who I am on a tennis court. — Lleyton Hewitt

But, I would say when I was four years old and I was at the Alan King Tennis Tournament and I was hitting with all the pros that would come to town. They would get me on the court or take notice and that stayed with me. — Andre Agassi

Tennis is a full-time job and not just the two hours that people see when we're on the court. — Andy Roddick

I play better tennis because the court is there. — Robert Frost

The primary conception of tennis is to get the ball over the net and at the same time to keep it within bounds of the court; failing this, within the borders of the neighborhood. — Elliott Chaze

I'm only superstitious on the tennis court. — Rafael Nadal

As a teenager, Monica Seles won some historic matches on the tennis court, dominating opponents and filling a room with trophies. — Don Yaeger

I got my first tennis racket on my seventh birthday. And because we had a tennis court in our backyard, I played every day. By ten I was playing competitively. — Tullian Tchividjian

My body is for my tennis - it's for my sport. I'm not a model at all. I don't work out to go to the beach: I work out to play well and to do well on the court. — Stanislas Wawrinka

We're so happy, even when we're smiling out of fear. — Lorde

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

In my mind, I'm always the best. If I walk out on the court (and) I think the next person is better, I've already lost. — Venus Williams

I'm as patient a father as I am on the tennis court. It takes a lot for me to get really upset, but sometimes kids can get you really cross if they really keep bugging you. — Roger Federer

Acting with Denzel is like playing tennis with someone that's better than you. You either play better tennis or get blown off the court. — Dean Cain

For the first couple of years I played really bad tennis. It was so bad that they booed me off the court. — Richard Krajicek

Once one recognizes the value of having difficult obstacles to overcome, it is a simple matter to see the true benefit that can be gained from competitive sports. In tennis who is it that provides a person with the obstacles he needs in order to experience his highest limits? His opponent, of course! Then is your opponent a friend or an enemy? He is a friend to the extent that he does his best to make things difficult for you. Only by playing the role of your enemy does he become your true friend. Only by competing with you does he in fact cooperate! No one wants to stand around on the court waiting for the big wave. In this use of competition it is the duty of your opponent to create the greatest possible difficulties for you, just as it is yours to try to create obstacles for him. Only by doing this do you give each other the opportunity to find out to what heights each can rise. — Zach Kleiman

I do think your personal life has an impact on your tennis. If your private life is up and down, and you're thinking about what is going on back home, then you aren't solely focused on your job, but when things are good back home, it's so much easier when you're on court. It's not necessarily marriage; it's more having a stable relationship. — Andy Murray

You don't need to know who's playing on the White House tennis court to be a good president. — James Baker

There were times when I asked myself whether I was being principled or simply a coward ... I was wrapped in the cocoon of tennis early in life, mainly by blacks like my most powerful mentor, Dr. Robert Walter Johnson of Lynchburg, Virginia. They insisted that I be unfailingly polite on the court, unfalteringly calm and detached, so that whites could never accuse me of meanness. I learned well. I look at photographs of the skinny, frail, little black boy that I was in the early 1950s, and I see that I was my tennis racquet and my tennis racquet was me. It was my rod and my staff. — Arthur Ashe

The diplomatic kids had a hectic sort of life, being constantly thrown from one end of the world to the other and always playing tennis, no matter who was being machine-gunned in the streets, you were always extraterritorial, history was not permitted to touch you, it was only buzzing around your tennis court in a bloody sort of way. You were so well protected that you went to pieces. Diplomatic immunity could do very strange things to you, it was like weightlessness. You had to remind yourself constantly that you actually existed, and you were not supposed to identify yourself too much with the suffering of whatever country you were posted to. But then, who needs reality anyway? — Romain Gary

I believe that one version of the good in life can be defined by the moments I sometimes had playing tennis as a sixteen-year-old. You'd be out on the court and for an hour, two hours, sometimes an entire roasting hot day, and every single thing you hit would go in. Hit that ball as hard as you wanted, wherever you wanted, and it went in. — Atul Gawande

Nixon was becoming a discombobulated president, politically on the run. His interior secretary, Walter Hickel, posted a letter to the president that leaked to the Washington Star: "Youth in its protest must be heard." Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and James Monroe were all young people in their day, Hickel argued; their "protests fell on deaf ears and finally led to war." (The president's response was to bulldoze the White House tennis court, beloved of Hickel.) — Rick Perlstein

A man will reveal his true self, or so it seems, on the tennis court. — Joyce Carol Oates

To me, Hewitt and Nadal would be the best spirited fighters I've ever seen on the tennis court. — Mats Wilander

I train Monday through Saturday. I usually have fitness training for 90 minutes, then I'm on the tennis court for 3 to 4 hours. — Sloane Stephens

It's difficult for most people to imagine the creative process in tennis. Seemingly it's just an athletic matter of hitting the ball consistently well within the boundaries of the court. That analysis is just as specious as thinking that the difficulty in portraying King Lear on stage is learning all the lines. — Virginia Wade

I really like the smell of the tennis balls, the new ones. I don't need to do it, but it's just my habit, what I do on the court when we change for the new tennis balls. I just smell them. Maybe it's for luck. I've been doing it all my life. — Dominika Cibulkova

There are people who love you and people who hate you, but for me, more so, people only think they know me by how I act or perform on a tennis court. — Lleyton Hewitt

Roger [Federer], he brought tennis ... one level higher. Normally he toys with everybody. With all respect to other players, he does whatever he wants on the court against them. It's incredible what kind of game he can play. — Marat Safin

She [Dokic] left the court with a face as long as thunder. — John Inverdale

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

On the tennis court, one needs a cool temperament, tremendous ball sense, reflexes, speed, hand-eye co-ordination, power, timing and peak physical fitness. Off the court, the player and support team need skills in planning, execution, travel, an ability to raise funds when needed, and several other talents. — Sania Mirza

I think I've always had a decent perspective on wins and losses on the tennis court. — Andy Roddick

Tennis, imprisoned within fixed boundaries, a patch of an acre, a green rectangle, tries the human soul. A tennis court is like a coffin, only larger. — Rita Mae Brown

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

I am very blessed to be able to play tennis, the sport that I love and very grateful for the opportunities to play in the finals of big events, when the season starts you are on the roll constantly and obliged to be committed to daily routines on and off the court. — Roger Federer

After being on the court for six hours, being on TV is very glamorous and fun for me. But tennis is always going to be my priority. It's not going to be this thing when all of a sudden TV will get in the way of that. — Maria Sharapova

A man should never wear shorts in the city. Flip-flops and shorts in the city are never appropriate. Shorts should only be worn on the tennis court or on the beach. — Tom Ford

You know why I want to win? Because of 15,000 reasons inside of the tennis court. — Marat Safin

A golf course is for golf. A tennis court is for tennis. A prison camp is for escaping. — Pierre Fresnay

Wimbledon attracted Bill Clinton to the gallery at Centre Court Tuesday at the All England Club. NBC cameras showed his head turning back and forth with each volley. Even at a tennis match, it looks like he's denying everything. — Argus Hamilton

Tennis players we're always playing in center courts that feel like arenas. And when we get on the court and the crowd cheers your name or salutes you - it's like you're a gladiator in the arena. And everyone is cheering - and you're fighting, you're screaming, during your strokes - it feels like you're an animal, fighting for your life. — Novak Djokovic

Earlier in my career, I used to spend a lot of time practising my tennis on court. Now I've learned that it's better to do just a couple of hours on court and two gym sessions a day. That's what's made me fitter and stronger. — Andy Murray

I was never happy that my injuries cut my career short and ultimately forced my decision to step away from tennis. I have enjoyed my time away from the court, a period that has allowed me to experience a different side of life. However, I miss the game and the challenge of competing at the highest level of tennis, and I want to gauge whether I can stay healthy and compete against today's top players. — Martina Hingis

You know how when you step on court your coach is like "go go go!"? And all throughout you just keep telling yourself to hit harder and harder and keep at it? You know how much you treasure those five-minute timeouts? You know how good you feel at the end of a session? You know how you're glad you're tired? No pills, no shots, just plain energy. I want to work like that. Whether I have to write ten thousand words or send five hundred emails, brainstorm for hours at a time, I want to have that energy. To keep fighting. To know it's all worth it.
Oh, yeah. That's my perfect day. — Thisuri Wanniarachchi

An idea has no worth at all without believable characters to implement it; a plot without characters is like a tennis court without players. Daffy Duck is to a Buck Rogers story what John McEnroe was to tennis. Personality. That is the key, the drum, the fife. Forget the plot. — Chuck Jones

For me, motivation is easy. I enjoy what I'm doing, and I'm lucky to play tennis. I enjoy the suffering. It's something quite natural for me to go on the court and suffer, and to go in the gym and to suffer, and to know the only way to get better is to work out - that's what I like. — Stanislas Wawrinka

Typical human lungs pack in a surface bigger than a tennis court. — James Gleick

She could feel the coolness, a whole childhood of it, falling through her. Rain on the coral beach in Galway. White tennis balls on the broken court. Her brother at his shortwave radio. A nest of wires and voices. Her father's cattle huddled on a laneway. The broken church bell. A grass verge of green in the laneway. High windows. Too tall for the school chairs. The milk came in small silver cans. She would not cry or whimper. She had always refused him that. — Colum McCann

I don't think I've ever held a racket in my hand ... There's got to be somebody in the US who isn't trying to play tennis and stinking up the court. — Isaac Asimov

I got picked on a lot. I was a complete geek in school. I had braces. I didn't have the hot girlfriend. I wasn't ever sought after. I was a stocky, awkward kid who got laughed off the tennis court when I tried that. — Josh Brolin

Naturally I've known girlies form an attachment to the younger male before now, but in the tennis score of the bedroom most girls in my experience would rather Love Thirty or Love Forty than Love Fifteen. Men, of course, are a whole other issue; they start at Love All and stay there until they're dragged from the court — Stephen Fry

First of all, in any sport where you can measure distance, height speed and all of that, you see how athletes have changed their sport and made it better. I believe, with every generation, the sport has improved. Certainly, in the men's game, that has been the case. I think that I played Pete [Sampras] at his best, I played Roger [Federer] at his best.. I believe wholeheartedly that Roger and [Rafael] Nadal have pushed the game much further than myself or Pete ever did. Their options on the tennis court are considerably more than ours. — Andre Agassi

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

Tennis has never been the most important thing in my life. My family, my health, my happiness ... they are more important to me. On court, I want to win. Off court, I want to be a better person. Tennis is a path to my future. — Maria Sharapova

I'm no shrinking violet. I played hockey until half my teeth were knocked down my throat. And I'm extremely competitive on a tennis court ... But that experience at the slaughterhouse overwhelmed me. When I walked out of there, I knew I would never again harm an animal! I knew all the physiological, economic, and ecological arguments supporting vegetarianism, but it was firsthand experience of man's cruelty to animals that laid the real groundwork for my commitment to vegetarianism. — Peter Burwash

He was working that charm right now on the trainer who kneeled before him and touched his thigh as though it were the thigh of David, Michelangelo's glorious statue come to life right here on court. — A.G. Starling

I did a really good job of sticking to the tennis court. — Brad Gilbert

I made it look so easy on court all those years. No one realized how hard I had to work. No one realized how much I had to put into it. They underestimated my intensity. — Pete Sampras

If someone where playing tennis you wouldn't walk onto the court and begin to have a conversion with them, likewise I think reading is at least as important as a game of tennis. — Ian McEwan

Manners are manners. Jimmy Connors and Ilie Nastase have no respect. I don't want my kid seeing Nastase play. The demeanor you show on the court is important to tennis ... Maybe we (yesterday's stars) were too stereotyped. But we were told to behave or they'd take our racket away. — Rod Laver

Teach a child to play solitaire, and she'll be able to entertain herself when there's no one around. Teach her tennis, and she'll know what to do when she's on a court. But raise her to feel comfortable in nature, and the whole planet is her home. — Joyce Maynard

Whoever has played tennis knows the court is pretty big and you always have space to put the ball in. — Tomas Berdych

Only boxers can understand the loneliness of tennis players - and yet boxers have their corner men and managers. Even a boxer's opponent provides a kind of companionship, someone he can grapple with and grunt at. In tennis you stand face-to-face with the enemy, trade blows with him, but never touch him or talk to him, or anyone else. The rules forbid a tennis player from even talking to his coach while on the court. People sometimes mention the track-and-field runner as a comparably lonely figure, but I have to laugh. At least the runner can feel and smell his opponents. They're inches away. In tennis you're on an island. Of all the games men and women play, tennis is the closest to solitary confinement ... — Andre Agassi

Tennis is more than just a sport. It's an art, like the ballet. Or like a performance in the theater. When I step on the court I feel like Anna Pavlova. Or like Adelina Patti. Or even like Sarah Bernhardt. I see the footlights in front of me. I hear the whisperings of the audience. I feel an icy shudder. Win or die! Now or never! It's the crisis of my life. — Bill Tilden

I really just try to enjoy the game and hope that I can inspire young kids. I started playing tennis because of Monica Seles, and I try to promote the sport in the best possible way. Sometimes it's hard because you get upset on court, but I think in life one learns through experiences in order to evolve as a person. — Ana Ivanovic

People sometimes say, "Isn't it boring, isn't it always the same? It's the same lines." I go, "Well, do you play tennis? Because that's the best analogy I can give." If you go out eight times and play tennis eight times this week, yeah it's the same rules but it's a different game every time you're out on that court.And that's the best analogy I can come up with the theater. — Kevin Spacey