Inspirational Tennis Quotes

The moment of victory is much too short to live for that and nothing else.

Tennis is a perfect combination of violent action taking place in an atmosphere of total tranquillity.

If you can react the same way to winning and losing, that’s a big accomplishment. That quality is important because it stays with you the rest of your life, and there’s going to be a life after tennis that’s a lot longer than your tennis life.

When I was 40, my doctor advised me that a man in his 40s shouldn’t play tennis. I heeded his advice carefully and could hardly wait until I reached 50 to start again.

You have to believe in yourself when no one else does.

Tennis belongs to the individualistic past – a hero, or at most a pair of friends or lovers, against the world.

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.

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.

I hate to lose more than I love to win.

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.

It’s one-on-one out there, man. There ain’t no hiding. I can’t pass the ball.

There is no way around the hard work. Embrace it.

The next point – that’s all you must think about.

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.

Good shot, bad luck and hell are the five basic words to be used in a game of tennis, though these, of course, can be slightly amplified.

To be a champ you have to believe in yourself when no one else will.

I’ll let the racket do the talking.

I have always considered tennis as a combat in an arena between two gladiators who have their racquets and their courage as their weapons.

You have to believe in the long term plan you have but you need the short term goals to motivate and inspire you.

Tennis and golf are best played, not watched.

It’s not whether you win or lose – but whether I win or lose.

One important key to success is self-confidence. An important key to self-confidence is preparation.

Some people say I have attitude – maybe I do… but I think you have to. You have to believe in yourself when no one else does – that makes you a winner right there.

Experience is a great advantage. The problem is that when you get the experience, you’re too damned old to do anything about it.

When you do something best in life, you don’t really want to give that up – and for me it’s tennis.

Tennis is an addiction that once it has truly hooked a man will not let him go.

The depressing thing about tennis is that no matter how good I get, I’ll never be as good as a wall.

Whoever said, ‘It’s not whether you win or lose that counts,’ probably lost.

The serve was invented so that the net could play.

Tennis just a game, family is forever.

What is the single most important quality in a tennis champion? I would have to say desire, staying in there and winning matches when you are not playing that well.

Champions keep playing until they get it right.

An otherwise happily married couple may turn a mixed doubles game into a scene from Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf.