When I was in grade school and we had to write papers about what we wanted to be when we grew up, I wanted to be a social worker o...r a missionary or a teacher. Then I got involved with tennis, and everything was just me, me, me. I was totally selfish and thought about myself and nobody else, because if you let up for one minute, someone was going to come along and beat you. I really wouldn't let anyone or any slice of happiness enter.... I didn't like the characteristics that it took to become a champion.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
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.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I know some of my self-worth comes from tennis, and it's hard to think of doing something else where you know you'll never be the ...best. Tennis players are rare creatures: where else in the world can you know that you're the best? The definitiveness of it is the beauty of it, but it's not all there is to life and I'm ready to explore the alternatives.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
... after being at the top, I don't think I could play senior tournaments, because you know how good you were. I don't know if I w...ould enjoy that, being half of what I was.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I shouldn't say I'm looking forward to leading a normal life, because I don't know what normal is. This has been normal for me.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
[My one tennis book] was very, very old. It had a picture of Bill Tilden. I looked at the picture and that was how I learned to ho...ld the racket.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
It's about learning your craft. That's a wonderful thing--especially with today's consumerism and instant gratification. You can't... buy that. It's about making decisions, corrections, choices. I don't think it's so much about becoming a tennis player. It's about becoming a person.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
There is no life for girls in team sports past Little League. I got into tennis when I realized this, and because I thought golf w...ould be too slow for me, and I was too scared to swim.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »