Tennis has given me soul.
I turned 7 in 1973 and remember Bobby Riggs arriving at the Astrodome on a chariot pulled by showgirls before his ‘battle of the sexes’ tennis match against Billie Jean King.
I chose to stay with tennis and they didn’t understand that at the school.
Exercise has its hazards. Runners are sidelined by shinsplints, freestylists by swimmer’s ear, and who hasn’t heard of tennis elbow? But the fitness buff of the ’90s has a far greater worry. StairMaster Butt.
I’m not to eager to play tennis in my spare time. I’m more interested in doing gym work and stuff like that. We have a lot of schools and courts around where I live, so if I really want to play, I don’t need to go too far.
It is for sure a big part of the coach’s job to make sure the tennis does not get neglected.
I played tennis. My older brother, Joseph, was a cello player, and I played the cello, but he was better than me at the cello, and he was also a better tennis player than me, so I was always like, ‘I wish there was something that only I did!’
Senior tennis is like the younger game in slow motion. It is much more of a backcourt game. The player who had a big game in his prime finds it harder to play that same game as a senior. But any senior who could lob well when he was young can still hit a good lob.
I’m a big sports guy – golf, tennis, baseball, basketball, snowboarding – and I love games.
Me writing about tennis is like a baker baking bread.
‘Minute to Win It’ is a variation on a game show from the 1950s called ‘Beat the Clock,’ in which contestants won washing machines and fox stoles by doing such pointless stunts as catching a tennis ball in a paper cup or knocking a hat off one’s wife’s head with a whipped-cream spritzer.
I think tennis and golf have had a large boost in participation with a lot of people wanting to take up the game since the start of the pandemic.
I kind of learned that it’s never over until it’s over in tennis.
My role at the USTA allows me to fulfill my ambition to open up opportunities for people to play tennis that may not otherwise have a chance or an outlet to play.
When I was eight and a half, my parents moved to a part of Queens where there was a club nearby. We joined, and if you believe in someone up above, I think I was meant to play tennis.
I have a strong tennis arm.
Unlike tennis matches, Supreme Court decisions are tiebreaker-free, meaning the lower-court ruling stands without any high-court guidance.
When I came on the tour, I thought, ‘Why don’t they treat tennis players the same way they look at football players?’ Because I’ve got news for you: when they are on the pitch, they are not saying, ‘Hello, how are you?’ out there.
Since I retired, I very much enjoy watching Serena Williams play. While I was playing, she was one of the toughest players I ever faced. Her ground strokes are so solid, her serve is one of the most powerful in women’s tennis, and mentally she is just so strong.
I spent about five years stuck in a room between the ages of 16 and 20 while I wrote the first book, which came out when I was 21. I should have been out playing tennis.
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.
To win a gold medal at Olympic Games has long been my dream ever since I started my career as a table tennis player.
If I stay healthy and I’m playing good tennis I have as good a chance as anybody.
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.
In tennis, a lot of parents are accused of driving their kids into tennis. I would say I’m the opposite: I drove my parents into it. They didn’t take it that seriously until I was about 11 or 12 years old, when they realised I had an opportunity to go pro.
I don’t have a high-powered life out of work. I like to go to the country for the weekend with the kids and the dog and play tennis. I am very good at turning off.
Four days a week, I do gymming, four days marital arts. Once a week I normally play lawn tennis, and once a week I horseride.
Tennis just a game, family is forever.
Usually, I wear tennis shoes because my feet are flat, and it hurts to wear anything other than shoes that are cushiony.
I played tennis when I was younger. I don’t know if I could have been a professional, but I am still passionate about it.
It’s nice to have other hobbies, other than golf. I’ve played football, I play tennis. I enjoy doing things other than golf, and poker is one of them.
I’ve been very focused on my career outside of tennis.
People ask me if I would like my children to play tennis, and I’m, like, ‘Hmm. Maybe not.’ And that’s a bit strange.
Whoever has played tennis knows the court is pretty big and you always have space to put the ball in.
Girls had never been important. I’d had a girlfriend or two and had liked them a lot but it wasn’t love, because my first love was tennis.
I’ve got more out of tennis than I could ever give back.
I started out with a tennis racquet. Later, during one of the breaks we got from tennis, I started playing football with my friends. I was only five years old.
I want my tennis to speak for everything.
I help design my own tennis clothes.
Hollywood is a boys’ club, and that’s something I thought was a stereotype – and it’s not. That really shocked me. Still shocks me. Everyone’s helping their buddies out and pressing their buddies and playing tennis with their buddies and making movies with their buddies, and that grosses me out.
I once played amateur tournament tennis six months without double-faulting.
I walk, and I play tennis, but mainly I watch what I eat. I eat all the things that I love, including cake. Cake is very important to me. But it’s all about the size of the slice!
Whether I’d stopped playing professionally at 17 – or if I stop at 35 – tennis will always be a part of my life.
I’d just as soon play tennis with the net down.
We want to make tennis look like America when it comes to cultural backgrounds.
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.
I’m a useless guitar-player. When I put myself in a band I immediately became its weakest part. I was like my forehand volley at tennis.
I didn’t realize until I was doing commentary what a gladiator-like competition tennis is – other than no one dies. The crowd is waiting for the players to come, and they walk through the tunnel, and they get on the court, and they get out their rackets, their weapons, and now they start.
Tennis was never work for me, tennis was fun. And the tougher the battle and the longer the match, the more fun I had.
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.
I did eight months of training for ‘Wimbledon,’ and then, by the time I finished the movie another four months later, I was like, ‘That’s me. I’m done with tennis.’
I played tennis and softball, and we had horses, growing up.
I’m really trying to focus myself on playing tennis, and I think that’s really important.
I’d love to open a tennis school for children in my hometown of Sochi.
Back in East St. Louis, tennis wasn’t the real thing. If you weren’t playing baseball, basketball, football, you were kind of on the outside.
I definitely want to get out of tennis and try something completely different.
I don’t do a huge amount of physical activity. I play tennis, I work out sporadically, and I eat well and take care of myself.
We are very passionate and very emotional people in Serbia. Everything we do, it is done with emotions. We are very good at sport, tennis, basketball, football ,water polo, volleyball. We always try to show this character and use it.
I’m not a huge dresser-upper. Most of my closet is jeans, T-shirts, tennis shoes, and flats. I don’t even know if I have a sequin gown in my closet.
I had a fabulous childhood. Not many people have an outdoor tennis court that you’re allowed to put your ponies on and pretend you’re at Hickstead.
Both of us played basketball, and I played tennis and my knees are done. Now if you ask us head-to-head who wins at golf, I’m asking for a couple of strokes.
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.
Even as a kid, I’d kick a tennis ball against a wall with both feet for hours. That was one way to become two-footed.
At 9, I think I had really gotten into tennis. I liked writing short stories; I loved solving math problems. I was learning a little piano, and I was collecting Garbage Pail Kids cards.
I’ve been asked a lot lately if tennis is clean or not. I don’t know any more how you judge whether a sport is clean. If one in 100 players is doping, in my eyes that isn’t a clean sport.
I have six racquets and usually two pairs of tennis shoes with me. Most of the time, the shoes can last two or three weeks if I’m playing all the week. I’m not the kind of player who slides a lot, so I just need one extra pair in my bag.
