Quotes and Sayings

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

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.
- Virginia Graham

Tennis has always been a big challenge to me and to be able to play that kind of tennis - well, only tennis can produce these feelings for me.
- Steffi Graf

By the way, 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.
- Sir James Matthew Barrie

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

Upon gaining a wildcard bid to the US Open Tennis Championships: That’s great - I’m only seven wins away from my first grand slam title.
- Justin Gimelstob

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.
- Hugo L. Black

Business is a lot like a game of tennis - those who serve well usually end up winning.
- Anonymous

A good follow-through is just as important in management as it is in bowling, tennis, or golf. Follow-through is the bridge between good planning and good results.
- Anonymous

Though your game is hardly the best
You can fray your opponent’s nerves
By methodically bouncing the ball
At least ten times before your serves.
- Arnold J. Zarett

Let no one say that I have said nothing new . . . the arrangement of the subject is new. When we play tennis, we both play with the same ball, but one of us places it better.
- Blaise Pascal

Why has slamming a ball with a racquet become so obsessive a pleasure for so many of us? It seems clear to me that a primary attraction of the sport is the opportunity it gives to release aggression physically without being arrested for felonious assault.
- Nat Hentoff

The primary conception of tennis is to get the ball over the net and at the same time to keep it within bounds of the court; failing this, within the borders of the neighborhood.
- Elliot Chaze

Using topspin, proximity to the net, and the height of the ball are the only 3 ways to hit wide angles with safety.

Make your approach shots bounce low so you take the height of the ball away from your opponent when they have to pass you.

Taking the racket back quickly is not necessarily good racket preparation.

High deep balls tend to breed high shallow balls.

Choking, is losing your execution because of directional intent.

If you replicate the inner world of an advanced player, you can create an advanced tennis game.

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

Don’t be rushed by your opponent so much that you start losing your split-step.

Always give your opponent credit after a loss.

When punching your volley, you should literally be able to pull the racket backwards from the point of contact with the ball.

Learn how to take advantage of short balls. If you can’t you’ll impatiently try to hit too many winners because you have nothing to wait for anyway.

First to the net, first to the pub.
- Patrick Rafter

Don’t be afraid to take the racket back to hit your volleys. It’s decreasing the length of the follow through that makes your swing a true punch.

Working on foot work without preparing your racket first is like heading into blizzard without a compass. You just won’t know where you’re going.

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.
- Chris Evert

But then I got to a point where
I had to answer: What do I want
to do, because I can’t continue
like this. You’ve either got to
commit to it or you’ve got to
forget about it. And I still feel
like there’s more tennis.
- Andre Agassi

Tennis is not a gentle game. Psychologically, it is vicious. That people are only just beginning to come to terms with this fact illustrates just how big a con trick has been perpetrated on the non-playing tennis public - and even a few players, usually losing players - for decades.
- Richard Evans

You don’t need to know who’s
playing on the White House
tennis court to be a good
president. A president has
many roles.
- James Baker

Speed in tennis is a strange mixture of intuition, guesswork, footwork and hair-trigger reflexes. Many of the players famed for quickness on court would finish dead last in a field of schoolgirls in a race over any distance more than ten yards.
- Eugene Scott

In tennis the addict moves about a hard rectangle and seeks to ambush a fuzzy ball with a modified snow-shoe.
- Elliot Chaze

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