[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 »
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 »
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 »
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 rankin...gs 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?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 »
The whole idea of image is so confused. On the one hand, Madison Avenue is worried about the image of the players in a tennis tour.... On the other hand, sports events are often sponsored by the makers of junk food, beer, and cigarettes. What's the message when an athlete who works at keeping her body fit is sponsored by a sugar-filled snack that does more harm than good?LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
There was such anticipation before her matches. Everybody wondered about Suzanne, what she would wear, what she would look like. I... would love to be like that. Everything is too simple in tennis now. Wouldn't it be neat to be a mystery woman and bring high fashion back to the sport? To be like Suzanne ... out there but untouchable?... unreachable?LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I decided that I want to live the rest of my life happy with what I'm doing. So when I play tennis again, I have to play it for th...e right reason. I don't want to play to get my No. 1 ranking back. I don't want to play for the attention, or to earn more. I don't even want to play because the world wants to see me do it, even though it's nice to know that the world is interested. I only want to play because I love the game, which is the reason I began to play at age seven in the first place.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »