Portal:Tennis/Quotes archive

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[edit] July 28 to August 19, 2006

• 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. — English tennis player Virginia Wade, on the psychological fitness and pensive innovation required of a player
• It wasn't my tennis that made me lose, it was a lot of different things going on–high drama, high emotion. — American tennis player Jennifer Capriati, on the devolution of her game in the mid-1990s, when she fell from sixth to 160th in the Women's Tennis Association's season-ending rankings, and her return to prominence in 2001, when she won two Grand Slam tournaments
• I would like to see it go back to the wood racquets, to see the touch put back in tennis. — Czech tennis player Jana Novotná, decrying the ascendance in professional tennis of power players, encouraged by the replacement of wood racquets by those made of synthetic materials
• What a polite game tennis is. The chief word in it seems to be sorry and admiration of each other's play crosses the net as frequently as the ball. — Scottish novelist J.M. Barrie, on the often cordial demeanor of tennis players

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• Here stands before you a Negro woman, raised in Harlem, who went on to become a tennis player...and finally [wound] up being a world champion, in fact, the first black woman champion. — American tennis player Althea Gibson, pictured at right, the first African American woman to compete regularly on the professional circuit, on her receiving the 1957 Associated Press Athlete of the Year in view of her having that year attained the top world ranking and having won The Championships, Wimbledon and the United States Open
• He's now gone from being a really great talent or whatever to, in my mind, not a great player anymore. Now it's becoming ordinary, totally ordinary...When he's not in control of the point, he tries to hit a two-hander. He's got the whole strategy turned around. — Seven-time Grand Slam tournament-winning Swede Mats Wilander, on the descent from the top ten of the world rankings of American tennis player Andy Roddick, the 2003 International Tennis Federation world champion and one-time world number one
• There was kind of a code that you had as an Australian that you never left the court losing unless you had blood all over you. That's the sort of toughness you need to compete on the world stage and I feel that our kids today just don't have it. — Australian tennis player John Newcombe, on the dearth of leading male Australian players on the Association of Tennis Professionals Tour during the 2000s, as against during the 1962–1971 period, during each year of which the season-ending world number one hailed from Australia
• I am working on it but I don't thinking having a good serve is the most important thing. It is about a lot of things coming together that makes you a good player. — Russian tennis player Elena Dementieva, pictured infra, on the weakness of her serve in comparison to her groundstrokes

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[edit] June 21 to July 28, 2006

• I would actually put him up there with the best of all time, mainly because he's so strong in the legs. – Swede Mats Wilander on Spaniard Rafael Nadal
• A lot of these young girls, they don't even know what the game is about. They have never seen a drop shot, a slice, and all the mixture and variety I have. – Swiss Martina Hingis, pictured, on the increased emphasis on power in the women's game
• Even Roger Federer never won Davis Cup, so it's really something special, something that gives you confidence when you go out there and you look at the other opponent and you feel like you have something more than the other guys do. – Croat Ivan Ljubičić after his nation's victory over Slovakia in the 2005 Davis Cup finals, in which Ljubičić won two matches
• What's so sad, to me, about Serena is she still so young and still has so much ability. If Serena wants to come back in the proper way and really prepare, I believe she could still become [world] number one again. – American Tracy Austin on countrymate Serena Williams, who, having won seven career Grand Slam titles, fell out of the Women's Tennis Association's top ten rankings in 2005, having focused on other pursuits
• We'd love to be a team like John McEnroe and Peter Fleming, [to] continue for numerous Grand Slams. I think we can. Just got to stay healthy and stay young. – American Mike Bryan, on the prospects of his brother's (Mike) and his (collectively, The Bryans) prospects for continued doubles tournament success
• If I compare Asian to European or American tennis, we have a long way to go. The competition isn't there. Asia doesn't have many tennis players or tournaments. – Thai Paradorn Srichaphan, the first player from an Asian nation to be ranked in the world's top ten, on the prospects of another top Asian player's emerging
  

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[edit] June 1 to June 21, 2006

• "I have always considered tennis as a combat in an arena between two gladiators who have their racquets and their courage as their weapons." - Yannick Noah
• "I don't think I've ever seen a guy play that well in my life." - Lleyton Hewitt, on the play of Roger Federer in 2004
• "[Tennis is] a perfect combination of violent action taking place in an atmosphere of total tranquility." - Billie Jean King
• "When I do that, it means I'm not going to miss the ball." - Maria Sharapova, on her habit of screaming during points
• "Tennis belongs to the individualistic past, a hero, or at most a pair of friends or lovers, against the world." - Jacques Barzun
• "If you can play tennis when somebody is shooting a gun down the street, that's concentration." - Serena Williams, on her upbringing in the sometimes violent Los Angeles suburb Compton, California

--Joe 17:50, 19 August 2006 (UTC)