RESPECT THE GRIND

“she was talking about watching Carlos Alcaraz and the wonder and amazement she experiences seeing him enjoy both the wins and seemingly the losses. Like obviously he doesn't like to lose but but you know what she's talking about, right? Because we all see it when we watch Alcaraz is there is just sort of a way that he embraces the journey of whether it ends in a win or loss that I think is is hard for a lot of players to wrap their minds around. And I sort of knowing the answer to this, I followed up just for a fact. I said, "You know, that's not how you felt on the court." And her answer was, "You know, absolutely not." For for her it was, you know such sort of a mental grind.”

“to me, it's like movement is what like got me to get rid of the nerves and the stress. And so, if it's like jumping around or if it's, um, even just bouncing with the racket like in the ball in the racket, like just bouncing it really quickly just to kind of get that energy flowing from being stuck in certain limbs or I don't know. Like I think to me, that was the most important thing is was to try to keep, uh, to keep moving. with Jayda now, I just say like, "Just keep moving your feet when you get nervous. Don't, you know, take some deep breaths and keep moving your feet. Just focus on one thing at a time."”

“when Denis Shapovalov rapped in his post-match interview at Indian Wells, I believe 2019. I said no, no, no like we're not going to I wouldn't do that to you, but can you make a promise to us? If you come back to this court and win will you rap? And he said yeah, I'll I'll rap. Well, imagine my surprise when he was on the schedule two days to come back to Stadium 3. He was playing Marin Cilic, I believe. Beats Marin like in routine fashion he proceeds to tell me he's like he has a rap prepared. He he he he wrote a rap should he should he win the match? And so anyway, my producer you know, she thinks she's going to get fired for like throwing throwing down like a beat”

“if I am an on-court interviewer, and I'm hired by a tournament, and something goes, you know, terribly wrong with production, or if, you know, you know, say say the music starts playing, and a player gets distracted, and loses the next three games or something, you know, even even if that mistake is caught right away, if it causes a distraction, if I am working for the tournament am I going to phrase a question maybe about that differently than if I were working for Sky Sports or ESPN? Yes, because I am not I don't consider myself a a typical journalist in that moment.”

“That happened um I think on some of the back courts in San Diego. I think we were, you know, back in the day when you're ranked lower, you have to, you know, you share the court, right? I was practicing, and there was four players on the court, and we were doing cross courts, and I think Ai and her mom um were practicing on the same court, but next to me, and um and I didn't have a player to play with, and I wasn't even planning really on playing doubles. our first match together, we they actually put us It was like on a later uh it was dark. I remember that it was dark, so it was like a later match, and um her and I I and me um had a misunderstanding. I think first or second game, our opponents lobbed us in the middle of the court, and I yell, I, and she thinks that I'm the one that's trying to, you know, like tell her to take it. So, we run into each other, and like I, you know, like she smacked the ball.”

“in 2005 when I won my first Grand Slam and I do think I you know, like I kind of felt like very relieved that I was able to finally win one after losing my first four Grand Slam finals. In singles I um you're happy and like the first few minutes, but then that feeling goes away pretty quickly and you have all the formalities right that you do the trophy ceremony, you have your interviews that you do. Um and I remember that night just getting back to my hotel room and just sitting in my hotel room by myself like I you know, wasn't married yet. Like I didn't have Jada or anything. It was just me in my hotel room and everybody like from the team went to their to their room. And um I just sat there and started packing because I was flying home the next day and just sitting there and I was like is this what it was like for Steffi?”

“I think my boys only realized that like a few years few years ago when we when I took them to the US Open and they um Yeah, I was doing I had to do something for Babolat and and um Bob, uh my agent who's one of my closest friends too, took Jack while we were waiting to Jack to see my plaque that's out there. And um and he came back he's like, "Mom, I didn't know you were this good." Like he like he came back from that he's like, "Mom, like you were kind of a big deal. Like there's pictures of you everywhere here." And I was like, "Jack, it's okay. Like it's fine. Like I yes, I did well here and that's basically it."”

“Player, I had one moment in my career that I will never forget. And that was, I think, the '99 US Open where I played Serena in the second round. I qualified and I got to play Serena. I was up 5-2 in the third. And She And I pick up my racket from the change of ends. I pick it up from next to me. And all of a sudden, this racket feels so heavy. Like literally, like I was doing great. Like 5-2 up. Like I was, you know, moving well. I was, you know, hitting the ball clean. And all of a sudden, the racket and my arm just just felt off. Like it just felt like it wasn't like attached to my body anymore.”

“The reason you can be tested outside of the hour, your whereabouts hour, is that if a player could only be tested during 1 hour at a time of their choosing, then to put it bluntly, it opens a door to those who might cheat. Substances these days can stay in the system for a matter of hours, so we have to have that unpredictability to have a strong testing program and to protect the vast majority of players who are playing fair.”