Billie Jean King
Tennis Player
"Pressure is a privilege - it only comes to those who earn it."
Tennis quotes
Tennis
684 quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
Serena Williams
Tennis Player
"If you can keep playing tennis when somebody is shooting a gun down the street, that's concentration."
Billie Jean King
Tennis Player
"Men can have a huge turnover of sponsorship and still survive a lot better than the women. But the women's ratings are better, at least at home in the United States than in the men's tennis."
Billie Jean King
Tennis Player
"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
Tennis Player
"Ever since that day when I was 11 years old, and I wasn't allowed in a photo because I wasn't wearing a tennis skirt, I knew that I wanted to change the sport."
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Browse quotes that often appear alongside tennis — connected by shared ideas and recurring themes.
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Tennis quotes (page 1 of 35)
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"In tennis, it is not the opponent you fear, it is the failure itself, knowing how near you were but just out of reach."
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"I was always in the tennis business-from 1968. I was in tournaments and also on World Team Tennis teams as well."
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51 likes
"My motto is: I'm alive, so that means I can do anything."
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"In my mind, I'm always the best. If I walk out on the court (and) I think the next person is better, I've already lost."
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"Ladies, here's a hint. If you're up against a girl with big boobs, bring her to the net and make her hit backhand volleys. That's the hardest shot for the well-endowed."
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"For me, losing a tennis match isn't failure, it's research."
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"In the sports arena I would say there is nothing like training and preparation. You have to train your mind as much as your body."
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"Tennis is a perfect combination of violent action taking place in an atmosphere of total tranquillity."
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"I'm a perfectionist. I'm pretty much insatiable. I feel there's so many things I can improve on."
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"I always listen, I ask children, I even ask adults in tennis, "What are your children playing?" And most of the time it's not tennis. It's pathetic."
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"If you're working with someone who you get on with and you're supposed to hate them on the screen, then you get this playful challenge thing where you're trying to one-up each other and that's really interesting. Sometimes it can become like tennis. The harder you hit the ball back, then the harder the hit it back to you."
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"When you walk on a court, clear your mind of everything unrelated to the goal of playing the match as well as you can."
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"Tennis is an addiction that once it has truly hooked a man will not let him go."
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"For me the most important thing has always been tennis, and that's what I want to get across the image I want to portray is a hard-working tennis player."
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"It is very important not to think about losing."
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"I call tennis the McDonald's of sport - you go in, they make a quick buck out of you, and you're out."
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"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."
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"Game, set, match equals tennis. Set, match, run equals arson."
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"I have a strong tennis arm."
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"What drove me to become the world's greatest bodybuilder is no different from what drives other athletes to become great tennis players or boxers or jockeys."
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