I was very, very shy as a younger girl, just petrified of people. Tennis helped give me an identity and made me feel like somebody.

Competitive toughness is an acquired skill and not an inherited gift.

If you can react the same way to winning and losing, that's a big accomplishment.

If you're a champion, you have to have it in your heart. You can have the greatest coaches in the world, all the opportunities to play, and the greatest equipment, but if you don't have it inside, you're not going to make it. On the other hand, if you don't have any of those luxuries but you have heart and courage and the guts to go out there and grind it out, then you'll make it.

Don’t let a first-set victory lead into a second-set slump

I always looked ahead.

Single-mindedness. I hate to say it because I don't think it's the best thing for developing a person, but the single-mindedness - just concentrating in the one area - that's what it takes to be a champion.