Top 40 Kevin Anderson Quotes

A lot of guys sometimes, you know, you might see them get angry at a line call, and suddenly they start playing better tennis.

Even though I’m 32, I feel like I’m playing my best-ever tennis and like the best years are ahead of me.

Any match you face, you know, you can be nervous.

I think what’s really important from a player is to understand what you did well in that match and see maybe if there’s a few areas that you could have done a little bit better, identify them, try to implement it, and keep getting better as the tournament goes on.

I try and focus on the youth coming up, and I think tennis is a great sport regardless of how far you make it: just, obviously, a lot of good life lessons.

Growing up, I did quite a bit of reading on the mental side. My dad, who coached me, had us doing a lot of different types of mental work, like visualization. I read a couple of tennis books that talked about calming your nerves, belief, visualization, relaxing, breathing.

I watched a documentary called ‘Plastic Oceans’ on Netflix, and it was an eye-opener for me.

Coming from a country that loves tennis, actually, there are a lot of people who play. We definitely face a lot of challenges when it comes to producing tennis players.

For me myself, I feel it’s always interesting gathering data. I have my team who do that. I think they feed me through specific things that I might find valuable.

I’ve had my wife traveling with me full time for four or five years, which has been huge for me, and we have our dog traveling with me as well, which I think is a really important part. We do travel so much, and we’re away from home so often, it makes it feel like it’s home a little bit, too.

I think a lot of people fail to work on their sight, even though it’s probably one of the most important sides to tennis. It’s also about reactions and concentration and focus, and I think it’s all very closely related.

I’ve made two finals, and I’m up against guys who have won over 30 grand slams between them. But it’s been great for the sport. You have to figure it out. Wishing for something else is futile.

I actually tried quite a few racquets in college before I turned pro.

2015 was obviously a great year. I achieved a few of my long-standing goals, which is very rewarding. I’m still working hard to achieve some of my other goals, like reaching the top 5 in the world rankings and qualifying for the World Tour Finals.

I am definitely very excited to continue, and even though I will be turning 32 next year, I feel I am playing my best tennis, and I definitely feel my best results are still ahead of me.

When a match doesn’t go your way, people tend to take to social media and just say very inappropriate things.

Beating Roger Federer is a match I will remember for years to come. All my respect to him. Federer is arguably the greatest player to have ever played our sport, so beating him at Wimbledon was really special.

No. 1 is definitely staying healthy. That is always going to be the biggest priority. I think when I am healthy, it gives me the opportunity to go out there and play the tennis I know that I can play.

There haven’t been that many players, both men and women, from South Africa breaking through on the pro level. It’s not easy because you have to really start playing tennis at a young age and be exposed to the right competitions and other players from around the world.

Once our season finishes in November, a lot of players maybe take a couple of weeks off and start training for the next year. You often usually have only a little time to work on your game and stuff.

There are so many positives and great memories I will take with me from Wimbledon 2018. It was always part of the dream to play in a Wimbledon final. It means so much for me to have played in the championship match.

With all the lead tape, my racquet is heavier than the model you’re going to find off the rack. It’s got most of its weight in the throat of the racquet; it’s not too head-heavy. I don’t like the feeling of a racquet that’s so head-heavy I can’t maneuver it around so well.

In a sport that’s as close as tennis, I feel like anything that you can do to give yourself an edge is definitely worth doing.

Especially at Indian Wells, Miami, the hard courts are what I grew up on, so I’m probably most used to it.

The work I do with my physiotherapist has been instrumental in keeping me healthy, and it’s a big reason why I’m able to continue to improve my game.

South Africa is a very pro-sporting country.

Sometimes in a match, when things get tight, you want to feel like you can swing out on the ball and still have control.

As always, I keep my head up, look objectively at all the matches I played, see where I can improve, bits and pieces, and, you know, get ready as quick as I can.

I generally don’t look at the draw. Next match.

By giving myself the freedom to lose, I actually began to play much better.

If you try to simplify it as much as possible, I guess you could say if a guy who is my size can move around the same as a guy who is much smaller, you would think there are maybe going to be a few more advantages.

It’s funny because, growing up, I found inspiration from watching Steffi Graf and Amanda Coetzer, a South African who was in the top 10 for many years. Oh, and then there’s someone I’ve gotten to know over the last few years: Martina Navratilova.

One of the biggest things I’ve worked on is how to play my best tennis every single time I walk on to the court.

Of course, on the road with me, I’ve got my coach, my own private physiotherapist. Back home, I have another coach who coaches me and also does all my racquets. I have a fitness trainer. I have a mental coach. It’s a pretty big team.

Most of the time, I’m playing right-handed players, so it’s a little easier to adjust going back to a righty.

The more mental strength you have, the better. If you look at some of the best players that we have seen over the years and that I have been playing with, mentally they are the best competitors as well, something I have worked hard on.

Some players are constantly changing racquets, fiddling with them. It’s not that I’m not specific with my racquets, but I feel that I’m not as obsessed with some of that stuff as many of the other players are.

Changing public perceptions is important. Nobody bats an eyelid in a team sport when a player gets injured and is still getting paid. In tennis, there is nothing like that.

I try not to get too political. But coming from South Africa, where apartheid was a huge problem, and there was lots of inequality, has shaped me in terms of how I view certain issues.

Something I worked very hard on, especially last year, was being more outgoing on the court: recognising good points I’d played and trusting myself and my skills on the court. The fist pumps weren’t necessarily to let my opponent know I was here, more to let myself know that I’m here.