I had a bunch of different colored hats I wore. When I started wearing a pink one, we won five or six tournaments in a row, so I stuck with it. It started as superstition and now it's tradition—my hideous trademark that I always wear.

When you’ve done everything you can to train yourself for competition, you’ll sleep well when the tournament is over, win or lose.

I couldn't be messing around and acting like an 11-year-old if we expected to compete well. I wanted to compete well, because it was great to see the looks in the eyes of men—like, "Wow, I am having a hard time beating this kid."

Practice like it's competition and compete like it's another day on the practice court.

It was really an exciting time trying to find my way from being a boy to becoming a man—being toe to toe and eye to eye with grown men, even though I was only 11 or 12.

It's a serve and pass game.

I didn't want to use anything as a crutch and ever have excuses heading into a match.