Usage
The "Selected Quote" box on the Portal page is randomly generated with the Random Portal Component template. To add a quote to be randomly selected, you must:
- Find the next available subpage number from the list of articles below
- Make a new subpage of this page with that number (Portal:Tennis/Selected article/<# here>)
- Enter the quote into the article, using the layout design at Portal:Tennis/Selected quote/Layout
- Link to the new subpage at the bottom of the list below, like the other subpages
- Update the "max=" attribute on the {{Random portal component}} in the "Selected Quote" box on the main page to the number of the subpage you created
Selected quote 1
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“ | He's like a cat with seven lives...Nine lives? How many do they have? [Questioner: Nine.]. Yeah, I thought so. Seven would have been easy. | ” |
— Roger Federer, on Lleyton Hewitt after his semifinal win at Cincinnati Masters, 2007 |
Selected quote 2
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“ | Previously I always thought it was just tactical and technique, but every match has become almost mental and physical—I try to push myself to move well. I try to push myself not to get upset and stay positive, and that's what my biggest improvement is over all those years. Under pressure I can see things very clear. | ” |
— Roger Federer, At a post match press conference after winning the 2008 Dubai Tennis Championships |
Selected quote 3
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“ | You cannot be serious! | ” |
— John McEnroe, directed at an umpire during a match at the 1981 Wimbledon. |
Selected quote 4
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“ | Being second sucks. | ” |
— Andre Agassi |
Selected quote 5
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“ | It's shocking how little there is to do with tennis when you're just thinking about nothing except winning every point. | ” |
— Andre Agassi |
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“ | If you are playing bad you are going to lose here, on clay, on ice, or on the beach. | ” |
— Rafael Nadal, preparing to play at the 2006 US Open |
Selected quote 7
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“ | To be honest, I haven't felt at my best since this tournament began. I didn't feel good with the court or the balls. But those are excuses. You have to accept when you don't play well and somebody else does. | ” |
— Rafael Nadal, after losing to James Blake at the US Open |
Selected quote 8
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“ | Some folks call tennis a rich people’s sport or a white person’s game. I guess I started too early because I just thought it was something fun to do. Later, I discovered there was a lot of work to being good in tennis. You’ve got to make a lot of sacrifices and spend a lot of time if you really want to achieve with this sport, or in any sport, or in anything truly worthwhile. | ” |
— Arthur Ashe |
Selected quote 9
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“ | Today, I’d have lost even against my mother. | ” |
— Gastón Gaudio, after losing to Nicolás Massú in the 2003 US Open |
Selected quote 10
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“ | I know I play boring tennis, or "solid" as the euphemism is. | ” |
— Sjeng Schalken, after winning a Davis Cup dead rubber against Canada's Simon Larose |
Selected quote 11
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“ | Nobody beats Vitas Gerulaitis 17 times in a row." | ” |
— Vitas Gerulaitis, upon winning the 1979 Masters final after losing 16 previous times to Jimmy Connors |
Selected quote 12
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“ | At least kiss me if you're gonna do me like that. | ” |
— Jimmy Connors, to umpire after a call at 1991 US Open (vs Aaron Krickstein) |
Selected quote 13
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“ | She thinks she's the f--ing Venus Williams, and she's not going to move out of the way. That's it. I'm sorry she feels that way. | ” |
— Irina Spîrlea, after changeover collision, 1997 US Open |
Selected quote 14
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“ | I can cry like Roger; it's just a shame I can't play like him. | ” |
— Andy Murray, after losing to Roger Federer at the Australian Open |
Selected quote 15
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“ | I finally feel like you guys can call me Aussie Kim, because I've won the title. | ” |
— Kim Clijsters, after winning the 2011 Australian Open |
Selected quote 16
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“ | We will celebrate on the streets of Belgrade, where else?! To the center [of the city], we’re going naked! | ” |
— Novak Djokovic, after winning the 2010 Davis Cup |
Selected quote 17
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“ | Sorry Pete, I tried to hold him off | ” |
— Andy Roddick, after losing the 2009 Wimbledon Championships (said to Pete Sampras) |
Selected quote 18
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“ | And I hope he's not angry, but I'd like to say to Roger that he can't win everything, sometimes somebody else has to win." | ” |
— Novak Djokovic, after winning the 2007 Canada Masters beating Roger Federer |
Selected quote 19
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“ | Tennis was considered as a girls' sport. And it still is. | ” |
— Novak Djokovic, on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno dated 12 March 2008 |
Selected quote 20
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“ | I think the difference is based on the fact that his game is really a pain in the ass. | ” |
— Gaël Monfils, after losing to Federer at the Quarterfinal of the 2009 French Open |
Selected quote 21
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“ | I have two dreams. One is the U.S. Open. The other one is be like Roger. One is done. | ” |
— Juan Martín Del Potro, during the 2009 US Open trophy presentation. |
Selected quote 22
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“ | It's a nice thing to remember. If I had played bad, I would had to live with it for the rest of my life thinking "how can I be such a donkey, there's the opportunity and I'm not live up to it!" | ” |
— Balázs Taróczy, in 2005 recalling his 1985 Wimbledon Championships doubles title. |
Selected quote 23
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“ | This idea sounds like a carnival joke. We could nominate a pop group, and if they sing in the breaks we'll draw more spectators too. | ” |
— Dick Hordorff, Rainer Schüttler's coach in 2002 reacting on Stich's idea to call back retired Becker to the Davis Cup for popularity reasons. |
Selected quote 24
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“ | If we had played in Sydney I would have already sent him to pick banana in the second set | ” |
— Todd Woodbridge, commenting on his 4th rubber defeat against Hungary in the 1995 World Group Play-offs |
Selected quote 25
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“ | If I never win another match I don't care. Whatever I do in my life, wherever I go I'm always going to be a Wimbledon champion | ” |
— Goran Ivanišević |
Selected quote 26
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“ | The next point -- that's all you must think about. | ” |
— Rod Laver |
Selected quote 27
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“ | Whoever said, ‘It’s not whether you win or lose that counts,’ probably lost. | ” |
— Martina Navratilova |
Selected quote 28
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“ | Experience is a great advantage. The problem is that when you get the experience, you're too damned old to do anything about it. | ” |
— Jimmy Connors |
Selected quote 29
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“ | I didn't start a war. Nobody died. I only lost a tennis match, nothing more. | ” |
— Boris Becker, after losing to Peter Doohan in the second round of the 1987 Wimbledon Championships |
Selected quote 30
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“ | My goal one day is to be in the same sentence as Rod Laver and Ken Rosewall. | ” |
— Pete Sampras, after winning the 1993 US Open |
Selected quote 31
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“ | True heroism is remarkably sober, very undramatic. It is not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost, but the urge to serve others at whatever cost. | ” |
— Arthur Ashe |
Selected quote 32
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“ | Tennis taught me so many lessons in life. One of the things it taught me is that every ball that comes to me, I have to make a decision. I have to accept responsibility for the consequences every time I hit a ball. | ” |
— Billie Jean King |
Selected quote 33
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“ | Tennis is a perfect combination of violent action taking place in an atmosphere of total tranquility. | ” |
— Billie Jean King |
Selected quote 34
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“ | Tennis’s beauty’s infinite roots are self-competitive. You compete with your own limits to transcend the self in imagination and execution. | ” |
— David Foster Wallace, in Infinite Jest |
Selected quote 35
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“ | I have no sense of humor about losing. | ” |
— Rafael Nadal, in Rafa |
Selected quote 36
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“ | What matters isn't how well you play when you're playing well. What matters is how well you play when you're playing badly. | ” |
— Martina Navratilova, in The Winning Way |
Selected quote 37
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“ | The metaphysical explanation is that Roger Federer is one of those rare, preternatural athletes who appear to be exempt, at least in part, from certain physical laws. | ” |
— David Foster Wallace, on Roger Federer in Federer as Religious Experience |
Selected quote 38
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“ | If you can keep playing tennis when somebody is shooting a gun down the street, that's concentration. | ” |
— Serena Williams |
Selected quote 39
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“ | I'm a tennis player, not a Negro tennis player. | ” |
— Althea Gibson |
Selected quote 40
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“ | In sports, you simply aren't considered a real champion until you have defended your title successfully. Winning it once can be a fluke; winning it twice proves you are the best. | ” |
— Althea Gibson |
Selected quote 41
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“ | Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can. | ” |
— Arthur Ashe |
Selected quote 42
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“ | In the fifth set it is not anymore about tennis. It is about nerves. | ” |
— Boris Becker |
Selected quote 43
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“ | Sure, on a given day I could beat him. But it would have to be a day he had food poisoning. | ” |
— Mel Purcell, after losing to Ivan Lendl in under an hour. |
Selected quote 44
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“ | The trouble with me is that every match I play against five opponents: umpire, crowd, ball boys, court, and myself. | ” |
— Goran Ivanišević, at the 2000 Samsung Open |
Selected quote 45
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“ | 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 |
Selected quote 46
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“ | I hate to lose more than I love to win. | ” |
— Jimmy Connors |
Selected quote 47
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“ | Don't give the artist a canvas to work upon. | ” |
— Jim Courier, advice to John Isner before playing Roger Federer in the 2012 Davis Cup match. |
Selected quote 48
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“ | I’m not the next Kournikova—I want to win matches! | ” |
— Maria Sharapova |
Selected quote 49
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“ | New Yorkers love it when you spill your guts out there. Spill your guts at Wimbledon and they make you stop and clean it up. | ” |
— Jimmy Connors, commenting on the difference between the US Open and Wimbledon. |
Selected quote 50
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“ | Năstase does not have a brain; he has a bird fluttering around in his head. | ” |
— Ion Țiriac |
Selected quote 51
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“ | If you see a tennis player who looks as if he is working very hard, then that means he isn't very good. | ” |
— Helen Wills |
Selected quote 52
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“ | I often surprise myself. You can't plan some shots that go in, not unless you're on marijuana, and the only grass I'm partial to is Wimbledon's. | ” |
— Rod Laver |
Selected quote 53
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“ | Thank God I don't have to play me today! | ” |
— Fred Perry, on entering the locker room at Wimbledon. |
Selected quote 54
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“ | We were beaten by two babies and a fox. | ” |
— Tony Trabert, after the 1953 Davis Cup Challenge Round, alluding to teenagers Lew Hoad and Ken Rosewall and their coach Harry Hopman. |
Selected quote 55
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“ | The comparing and rating of athletes who were not contemporaries and did not encounter one another on important occasions is a trap in which no tennis reporter of experience should be caught. | ” |
— Al Laney, in his book 'Covering the Court – A Fifty-Year Love affair with the Game of Tennis'. |
Selected quote 56
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“ | If I didn't play tennis, I would probably have to see a psychiatrist. | ” |
— Arthur Ashe |
Selected quote 57
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“ | The fascination of playing is paramount, the victory a minor consideration. | ” |
— Bill Tilden |
Selected quote 58
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“ | Playing against Don Budge was like playing against a concrete wall. There was nothing to attack. There was no weakness. When he was in his prime, no player, past or present, could have beaten him. | ” |
— Sidney Wood, on Don Budge in a 1960 sport magazine article. |
Selected quote 59
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“ | The most devastating and impressive player I have ever seen. | ” |
— Bobby Riggs, on Don Budge in a 1960 sport magazine article. |
Selected quote 60
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“ | Mixed doubles are always starting divorces. If you play with you wife, you fight with her. If you play with somebody else, she fights with you. | ” |
— Sidney Wood, on the perils of mixed doubles matches. |
Selected quote 61
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“ | I feel like dog trainer who teach dog manners and graces and just when you think dog knows how should act with nice qualities, dog make big puddle and all is wasted. | ” |
— Ion Țiriac, on being Ilie Năstase's coach. |
Selected quote 62
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“ | They should send Borg away to another planet. We play tennis. He plays something else. | ” |
— Ilie Năstase, on Björn Borg. |
Selected quote 63
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“ | When Lew's game was at its peak, nobody could touch him. | ” |
— Pancho Gonzales, on Lew Hoad. |
Selected quote 64
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“ | Gonzales was my toughest opponent , a notch above Lew Hoad, but Lew is the greatest when he is on. | ” |
— Ken Rosewall, comparing his rivals Pancho Gonzales and Lew Hoad. |
Selected quote 65
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“ | In my opinion, we had Vines, who for one year was the best player ever, and we have Budge, who for the best three years of his life, nobody could hold a candle to. For the best five-year period I give it to Jack Kramer. The best ten-year period I give it to Laver. The best twenty-year period, I give to Gonzales. The best twenty-five to thirty-year period I give it to Rosewall. | ” |
— Bobby Riggs, ranking the all-time greats of the game. |
Selected quote 66
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“ | The tour is something inside me....I suffer when I lose but I want to be where the show is. I know people say I should retire, but what do I do then? To tell me I must retire tomorrow is like saying I must die tomorrow. And I don't want to die. | ” |
— Ilie Năstase, on life on the tour (1981). |
Selected quote 67
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“ | I was in the locker room recently with five top ten players. Not one word was said in twenty minutes. As I walked out, I said, "It was a pleasure talking with you fellows". | ” |
— Jimmy Connors, in 1994. |
Selected quote 68
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“ | You live and die by those numbers. For some people, your whole identity is your ranking. I once heard someone ask a player, 'How are you?' He answered, 'I'm No.29 this week.' Not 'I'm happy' or 'Im depressed' or 'I'm making it day to day.' Just 'I'm No. 29', like that said it all. | ” |
— Bill Scanlon, on computer rankings, in his 1983 book 'Short Circuit'. |
Selected quote 69
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“ | You can find out anything you want to know about a person by putting him on Centre Court. | ” |
— John Newcombe, Wimbledon Champion, in 1995. |
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“ | Wimbledon is like the Super Bowl, the World Series and the NBA Finals all rolled into one. | ” |
— Tony Trabert, in his book 'Trabert on Tennis' (1988) |
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“ | In any match between the perfect baseline player and the perfect net rusher, I would take the baseliner every time. | ” |
— Bill Tilden |
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“ | I have broken every rule recommended by instruction books over the past fifty years. | ” |
— Björn Borg |
Selected quote 73
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“ | The depressing thing about tennis is that no matter how much I play, I’ll never be as good as a wall. | ” |
— Mitch Hedberg |