Winning Tennis Quotes & Sayings

In tennis, at the end of the day you're a winner or a loser. You know exactly where you stand ... I don't need that anymore. I don't need my happiness, my well-being, to be based on winning and losing. — Chris Evert

What I want out of tennis is not necessarily just winning. — Jennifer Capriati

There is no relief at it being over. There is the joy of winning it. — Steffi Graf

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

I'm not the savior of men's tennis in America. I'm just a kid trying to win a few matches. — Andy Roddick

I have no sense of humor about losing — Rafael Nadal

Wimbledon is getting a bit too like Royal Ascot. It's not what happens or who wins so much, as what clothes do I have on. — David Lloyd

A win's a win, unless it is not a win, and then it's not a win. — Venus Williams

It is not just the more talented player who wins. Some players may try a little harder. — Arthur Ashe

Except in a very few matches, usually with world-class performers, there is a point in every match (and in some cases it's right at the beginning) when the loser decides he's going to lose. And after that, everything he does will be aimed at providing an explanation of why he will have lost. He may throw himself at the ball (so he will be able to say he's done his best against a superior opponent). He may dispute calls (so he will be able to say he's been robbed). He may swear at himself and throw his racket (so he can say it was apparent all along he wasn't in top form). His energies go not into winning but into producing an explanation, an excuse, a justification for losing. — C. Terry Warner

Life is like a tennis game. You can't win without serving. — Arthur Ashe

In tennis, because of the way it's scored, I don't think that scoring one point out of luck is ever decisive in winning. But, of course, it depends on the moment. — Rafael Nadal

As a tennis player you can win and you can lose, and you have to be ready for both. I practised self-control as a kid. But as you get older they both - winning and losing - get easier. — Rafael Nadal

In the complete overall history of tennis, I figure I'll be worth a sentence or two ... That's why my place in the all-time rankings means so very little to me, because I know I won't be anybody's number one, and it's that same old thing: if you're not number one, then what does it really matter? — Billie Jean King

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 lost to a better player who played some courageous tennis and deserved to win. — Novak Djokovic

Whatever I do, I love to win. I don't care if it's tennis or ping pong, I'll kill myself to win it. — Andy Pettitte

Business is like tennis. Those who serve well win. — Ken Blanchard

When you play competitive tennis you are competing against someone else and you have to win. Playing music I didn't have to win I had to become better within myself. — Aaron Zigman

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. — Andre Agassi

I always felt tennis and winning was a byproduct of doing everything right. — Andre Agassi

What rivalry? I win all the matches. — Martina Hingis

Hornergy' is Zen's term for the indomitable athletic edge powered by sexual restraint. The basketball, baseball and football teams haven't had a winning season in years. The table-tennis team, however, is undefeated. — Megan McCafferty

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

Their hands slapped library door handles together, their chests broke track tapes together, their tennis shoes beat parallel pony tracks over lawns, trimmed bushes, squirreled trees, no one losing, both winning, thus saving their friendship for other times of loss. — Ray Bradbury

The Olympics is not for tennis and tennis does not need the Olympics. It is not my goal in life to win a gold medal. — Marat Safin

It's something I've always wanted - to be known as an Australian. When I was younger I was always referred to as an Aboriginal tennis player. Now I think the award means that I have been recognised as an entertainer and that makes me happy ... It's given me probably as big a kick as winning Wimbledon. — Evonne Goolagong Cawley

I feel like I don't have to win anymore. I've had a wonderful career. Tennis has given me so much, things I would have never expected in my life. I feel honored to even be a part of such a wonderful sport. — Serena Williams

I've stayed calm when I'm winning and I've stayed calm when I've lost. Tennis is a sport where we have a lot of tournaments every week, so you can't celebrate a lot when you have big victories, and you cannot get too down when you're losing, as in a few days you'll be in the next tournament and you'll have to be ready with that. — Rafael Nadal

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

Tennis's beauty's infinite roots are self-competitive. You compete with your own limits to transcend the self in imagination and execution. Disappear inside the game: break through limits: transcend: improve: win. — David Foster

I loved to play, I was competitive, I wanted to win, that was all I knew. In the first few years tennis is a game. Later, it becomes a job, — Gabriela Sabatini

If you can react the same way to winning and losing, that's a big accomplishment. That quality is important because it stays with you the rest of your life, and there's going to be a life after tennis that's a lot longer than your tennis life. — Chris Evert

All I cared about in tennis was winning. — Pete Sampras

The choreographic process is exhausting. It happens on one's feet after hours of work, and the energy required is roughly the equivalent of writing a novel and winning a tennis match simultaneously. — Agnes De Mille

[Lizzie Bennington to a reporter who has asked for her opinion about Jack Archer's celebrated thighs.] When you come back from a set down and bring the match to a final set tiebreak and are a point away from winning the match, only to have what looks like an extremely fit player call a time out because of a cramp and then watch that player sit back and casually converse and laugh while you do your best to keep your mental focus and your body moving so you don't grow cold and cramp yourself, I hardly think you'd concern yourself with his burgeoning manhood, let alone his thighs! — A.G. Starling

I'd accomplished everything I had set out to do - winning the French and Australian Opens, the Olympic gold medal and the Davis Cup. So I said to myself: 'Why don't you try another year and see if you can enjoy your tennis like you did once?' And I've been doing it. — Yevgeny Kafelnikov

I really enjoy playing with someone else and whether it's chess or tennis or games, I love card games. I love that, but I think there's something so important to gain from winning and losing and learning how to lose and how you can be better from that. — Hilary Swank

Winning is a way of expressing yourself. — Boris Becker

Choking is being in a position to win, and then experiencing some critical failure of nerve or spirit. That never happened to me. And I can't help but think it was because I was never afraid to lose. — Pete Sampras

I don't care now if I ever win a match in my life again. Whatever I do in my life, wherever I go, I'm going to be always Wimbledon champion. — Goran Ivanisevic

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

I get my drive and determination from just winning and playing tennis. I know if I don't work, I won't get rewarded. It was a life long dream to win a Grand Slam so when I was able to do that it felt so good and I wanted to do it again. It's not that hard to stay motivated. — Samantha Stosur

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

That's when you've got to grit your teeth and hang in there and try and find a way to win when you're not playing your best tennis - that's what I can be proud of — Lleyton Hewitt

It's shocking how little there is to do with tennis when you're just thinking about nothing except winning every point. — Andre Agassi

I'm not the next Kournikova-I want to win matches! — Maria Sharapova

People always ask about young people like me being forced into things. I play tennis because I love it. I think Russians might be tougher than other people. When I arrived in America I was young, but I already knew what I wanted. I think that when you start from nothing, when you come from nothing, it makes you hungry. I am proud of where I came from and I know what I want. I want to win. — Maria Sharapova

What is the single most important quality in a tennis champion? I would have to say desire, staying in there and winning matches when you are not playing that well. — John McEnroe

I proved that I can win the Grand Slams. I proved that I can last four and a half hours and come out on top against one of the strongest guys physically that tennis had probably seen especially on this surface. So they would probably be the things that I would say I have learned tonight: To not doubt myself physically and mentally from now on. — Andy Murray

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

My accomplishments do not live up to my tennis game. Most people have to work really hard and win some big matches, and then they get money and popularity. For me it has been the reverse of everybody else. The exact opposite. — Andre Agassi

You don't simply tell someone to get out there and win the tennis match. You say 'move your feet' or 'watch the fuzz on the ball' to really get into the Zen of it. You pull all that together, and then you just might hold up the Wimbledon Plate ... It's not about winning first place but bringing every element of effort to whatever you do. — Diana Nyad

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