Tennis is one of the world’s favorite sports and it has inspired athletes and lovers of the game alike to come up with some of the most inspirational quotes of all time. Whether you’re a tennis player, an avid fan, or just someone looking for a boost of motivation, most memorable quotes about tennis make you think and smile. From lessons on mental strength to perseverance, these uplifting tennis quotes will provide some valuable insights that will help you reach the next level. Let’s explore the importance of having a positive attitude and never giving up, what it takes to excel, and how to stay motivated along the way. So, grab your racket and get ready to be inspired!
Best Tennis Quotes
Tennis is, more than most sports, a sport of the mind. Rafael Nadal
It’s no accident, I think, that tennis uses the language of life. Advantage, service, fault, break, love, the basic elements of tennis are those of everyday existence, because every match is a life in miniature. Even the structure of tennis, the way the pieces fit inside one another like Russian nesting dolls, mimics the structure of our days. Points become games become sets become tournaments, and it’s all so tightly connected that any point can become the turning point. It reminds me of the way seconds become minutes become hours, and any hour can be our finest. Or darkest. It’s our choice. Andre Agassi
Tennis is a tough sport there are no draws. Roger Federer
When we plant a rose seed in the earth, we notice that it is small, but we do not criticize it as rootless and stemless. We treat it as a seed, giving it the water and nourishment required of a seed. When it first shoots up out of the earth, we don’t condemn it as immature and underdeveloped; nor do we criticize the buds for not being open when they appear. We stand in wonder at the process taking place and give the plant the care it needs at each stage of its development. The rose is a rose from the time it is a seed to the time it dies. Within it, at all times, it contains its whole potential. It seems to be constantly in the process of change; yet at each state, at each moment, it is perfectly all right as it is. W. Timothy Gallwey
I just try to play tennis and don’t find excuses. You know, I just lost because I lost, not because my arm was sore. Goran Ivanisevic
Like most North Americans of his generation, Hal tends to know way less about why he feels certain ways about the objects and pursuits he’s devoted to than he does about the objects and pursuits themselves. It’s hard to say for sure whether this is even exceptionally bad, this tendency. David Foster Wallace
Tennis has given me soul. Martina Navratilova
Only boxers can understand the loneliness of tennis players and yet boxers have their corner men and managers. Even a boxer’s opponent provides a kind of companionship, someone he can grapple with and grunt at. In tennis you stand face to face with the enemy, trade blows with him, but never touch him or talk to him, or anyone else. The rules forbid a tennis player from even talking to his coach while on the court. People sometimes mention the track and field runner as a comparably lonely figure, but I have to laugh. At least the runner can feel and smell his opponents. They’re inches away. In tennis you’re on an island. Of all the games men and women play, tennis is the closest to solitary confinement. Andre Agassi
If you don’t lose, you cannot enjoy the victories. So I have to accept both things. Rafael Nadal
Except in a very few matches, usually with world class performers, there is a point in every match and in some cases it’s right at the beginning when the loser decides he’s going to lose. And after that, everything he does will be aimed at providing an explanation of why he will have lost. He may throw himself at the ball so he will be able to say he’s done his best against a superior opponent. He may dispute calls so he will be able to say he’s been robbed. He may swear at himself and throw his racket so he can say it was apparent all along he wasn’t in top form. His energies go not into winning but into producing an explanation, an excuse, a justification for losing. C. Terry Warner
I’ll let the racket do the talking. John McEnroe
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
I want my tennis to speak for everything. Maria Sharapova
Tennis is the loneliest sport. Andre Agassi
You’ll hear a lot of applause in your life, fellas, but none will mean more to you than that applause from your peers. I hope each of you hears that at the end. Andre Agassi
Freed from the thoughts of winning, I instantly play better. I stop thinking, start feeling. My shots become a half second quicker, my decisions become the product of instinct rather than logic. Andre Agassi
I’m really trying to focus myself on playing tennis, and I think that’s really important. Stefan Edberg
I have no sense of humor about losing. Rafael Nadal
When I was serving for the match, there was a sense of how big a moment that is in British tennis history. It’s great to have finally done it. Andy Murray
Science fiction is a dialogue, a tennis match, in which the Idea is volleyed from one side of the net to the other. Ridiculous to say that someone stole an idea no, no, a thousand times no. The point is the volley, and how it’s carried, and what statement is made by the answering statement. In other words if Burroughs initiates a time gate and says it works randomly, and then Norton has time gates confounded with the Perilous Seat, the Siege Perilous of the Round Table, and locates it in a bar on a rainy night do you see both the humor and the volley in the tennis match? C.J. Cherryh
I think, for me, I just really want to have fun with every match that I play because tennis is a game. Naomi Osaka
Ortho Stice played with a kind of rigid, liquid grace, like a panther in a back brace. David Foster Wallace
Tennis is a fine balance between determination and tiredness. Virginia Wade
I didn’t cry when they buried my father I wouldn’t let myself. I didn’t cry when they buried my sister. On Thursday night, with my family asleep upstairs, my eyes filled as Agassi and Marcos Baghdatis played out the fifth set of their moving second round match. Greg Garber
The fifth set is not about tennis, it’s about nerves. Boris Becker
She felt about a love set as a painter does about his masterpiece; each ace serve was a form of brushwork to her, and her fantastically accurate shot placing was certainly a study in composition. Janet Flanner
When the last point is done, we are humans. Give your opponent a hug and say, great fight, and that’s all. Novak Djokovic
I sometimes rented a car and drove from event to event in Europe; a road trip was a great escape from the day to day anxieties of playing, and it kept me from getting too lost in the tournament fun house with its courtesy cars, caterers, locker room attendants, and such all amenities that create a firewall between players and what you might call the real world you know, where you may have to read a map, ask a question in a foreign tongue, find a restaurant and read the menu posted in the window to make sure you’re not about to walk into a joint that serves only exotic reptile meat. Patrick McEnroe
The ball is round, the game is long. Bjorn Borg
The public never appears to tire of endless courses of strawberries and cream, and the theory that you run the risk of boring people with endless photo montages of the Chelsea Pensioners in their dress reds, or close ups of a Pimm’s Cup sprouting all kinda of flora, has yet to be proven. People like Wimbledon in the same way they like blue jeans or even their own spouses for the pleasure yielded by their reliable sameness. Peter Bodo
I don’t think, that you can ever get your game to perfection, you know. Only if you’re Federer. Novak Djokovic
The day you give priority to bogus ethics over human reactions, you become a loser. Human reactions are priceless. Rules should never, ever stifle emotions. Tennis is a very human game facing a great danger that it will be strangulated in a cat’s cradle of unnecessary or inhumane rules. Ted Tinling
Tennis is a psychological sport, you have to keep a clear head. That is why I stopped playing. Boris Becker
What if, when Tracy Austin writes that after her 1989 car crash, I quickly accepted that there was nothing I could do about it, the statement is not only true but exhaustively descriptive of the entire acceptance process she went through? David Foster Wallace
It’s shocking how little there is to do with tennis when you’re just thinking about nothing except winning every point. Andre Agassi
Almost anyone who loves tennis and follows the men’s tour on television has, over the last few years, had what might be termed Federer Moments. These are times, watching the young Swiss at play, when the jaw drops and eyes protrude and sounds are made that bring spouses in from other rooms to see if you’re ok. David Foster Wallace
It’s easier when you play. You get your emotion out. You scream. You yell. You do whatever you want. You play. But it’s tough to sit. Goran Ivanisevic
In most sports, like in tennis, love means nothing. Wyatt Allen
Tennis is mostly mental. Of course, you must have a lot of physical skill but you can’t play tennis well and not be a good thinker. You win or lose the match before you even go out there. Venus Williams
I was his tennis friend. Ernest Hemingway
One important key to success is self confidence. An important key to self confidence is preparation. Arthur Ashe
What is the single most important quality of a tennis champion? I would have to say desire staying in there and winning matches when you are not playing that well. John McEnroe
In the brief respite, James tore up part of the flooring and leaped down into an underground vault or drain. Unluckily for him, he had recently caused the egress from this chamber to be walled up because his tennis balls had sometimes been lost there. Gordon Donaldson
Whoever said, It’s not whether you win or lose that counts, probably lost. Martina Navratilova
Tennis is more than a game, it’s a way to show love and passion for the sport! Jonathan Ryan
Every time I hit the ball on the wall I used to pretend I was there Wimbledon. When I went to sleep I used to pretend I was there. Evonne Goolagong Cawley
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
Life is life tennis Those who serve best usually win. David Foster Wallace
I always believe if you’re stuck in a hole and maybe things aren’t going well you will come out stronger. Everything in life is this way. Roger Federer
No one ever asked me if I wanted to play tennis, let alone make it my life. My father decided long before I was born that I would be a professional tennis player. Andre Agassi
Success is a journey, not a destination. The doing is often more important than the outcome. Arthur Ashe
Tennis the most perfect combination of athleticism, artistry, power, style, and wit a beautiful game, but one so remorselessly travestied by the passage of time. Martin Amis
I am lucky that whatever fear I have inside me, my desire to win is always stronger. Serena Williams
It may well be that we spectators, who are not divinely giftes as athletes, are the only ones truly able to see, articulate and animate the experience of the gift we are denied. David Foster Wallace
Spectacular performances are preceded by spectacular preparation. Frank Giampaolo
The fifth set is not about tennis, it’s about nerves. Boris Becker
I never look back, I look forward. Steffi Graf
You know the way a racket’s got a sweet spot? It’s the same with life. That moment when everything connects. Feel it? I’m in the sweet spot, and you’re there with me, and suddenly all the airports and bad calls and sleepless nights make sense: It was only ever about love. Germaine Shames
Ever tried, ever failed, no matter, try again, fail again. Fail better. Stan Wawrinka
The Williams sisters had something else each other, and their absolute dominance. Anne Helen Petersen
Success is walking out of here with the title, and anything less is not good enough in my book. Pete Sampras
But every step of Williams’s career has been shadowed with the sort of resentment that emerges whenever someone unsettles the status quo in an effective and unapologetic way. Put differently, when she stirred the pot, a whole lot of bullshit rose to the surface and her refusal to try to perfume its smell has made her unruliness all the more potent. Anne Helen Petersen
I’ve been in a lot of trouble and come out of it. I think it shows a lot of good character. Stefan Edberg
He built a reputation by having the most peculiar temperament in the league. Referees became hesitant to flag breaks in the rules or messy plays, and other players became wary of calling Johnny out on inappropriate form, or backing up the ref. He soared to the top of the league, entered the international championship, and was supposed to be awarded second. They met for the handshake and his opponent met God. Ian Kirkpatrick
If you’re a champion, you have to have it in your heart. Chris Evert
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If you’re afraid of losing, then you don’t dare to win. Bjorn Borg
But if tennis is life, then what follows tennis must be the unknowable void. The thought makes me cold. Andre Agassi
Fame and success and titles stay with you, but they wear out eventually. In the end, all that you are left with is your character. Ana Ivanovic
I tell the players You’ll hear a lot of applause in your life, fellas, but none will mean more to you than that applause from your peers. I hope each of you hears that at the end. Andre Agassi
I didn’t have the same fitness or ability as the other girls, so I had to beat them with my mind. Martina Hingis
My first job is big sister and I take that very seriously. Venus Williams
I don’t play in any tournaments to come second best. Andy Murray
When love is part of a game, it means nothing. When love is love, it means everything. Kate McGahan
Losing is not my enemy, fear of losing is my enemy. Rafael Nadal
Prove the nay sayers wrong. Leave being average to others. You could be the one who changes the way the world spins. Frank Giampaolo
If you’re not a competitor, you’ve just got to go home. Venus Williams
Humility is the recognition of your limitations, and it is from this understanding, and this understanding alone, that the drive comes to work hard at overcoming them. John Carlin
I’ve grown most not from victories, but setbacks. If winning is God’s reward, then losing is how He teaches us. Serena Williams
Well, with that filly in my line of vision blushing like a virgin, something in me was bound to stand at attention. And my walking legs were occupied. A.G. Starling
When you do something best in life, you don’t really want to give that up and for me it’s tennis. Roger Federer
It’s one on one out there, man. There ain’t no hiding. I can’t pass the ball. Pete Sampras
The real, many veiled answer to the question of just what goes through a great player’s mind as he stands at the center of hostile crowd noise and lines up the free throw that will decide the game might well be nothing at all. David Foster Wallace
The depressing thing about tennis is that no matter how good I get, I’ll never be as good as a wall. Mitch Hedberg
You’ve got to go through hell. Before you get to heaven. Let’s do 10 more. Frank Giampaolo
Writing free verse is like playing tennis with the net down. Robert Frost
In any game, the game itself is the prize, no matter who wins, ultimately both lose the game. Amit Kalantri
Tennis is a perfect combination of violent action taking place in an atmosphere of total tranquility. Billie Jean King
Life is like tennis. Those who serve best usually win. David Foster Wallace
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. J.M. Barrie
He was working that charm right now on the trainer who kneeled before him and touched his thigh as though it were the thigh of David, Michelangelo’s glorious statue come to life right here on court. A.G. Starling
Tennis the most perfect combination of athleticism, artistry, power, style, and wit. A beautiful game, but one so remorselessly travestied by the passage of time. Martin Amis
I like pros, especially when it comes to tennis and rent boys and here I’m really wondering if the pun on prose consolidates Bruce’s feeling toward it versus poetry under the sign of sex, which Bruce sometimes pays for, in order to direct us toward the pleasure of its use function when monetised, a pleasure seldom associated with poetry, and one that might lead to the company of more pros. He continues If I can get a twofer, and the trick looks like Rafael Nadal, I’m in heaven. Andrew Durbin
Fifteen love, Chris said in a strong, clear voice as he set up for his next serve, and Elizabeth sensed that in addition to announcing the score, he was sending her a special message. A message about love. Francine Pascal
It is never too late to get into tennis! Sam Stosur
