For years I felt that I didn't have enough stamina and then, four years ago, I felt like I was not getting enough air but I was diagnosed with exercise-induced asthma. The medicine for asthma never worked.

Most definitely always been a passion, and always been one of my goals in life as a young person, to have my own business. My dad gave us his entrepreneurial mindset, so that was also ingrained, as well as the tennis. So in a lot of ways it's a part of making my parents proud. I think we all want to make our parents proud, you know?

Winning once is never anyone's dream. We all want to keep winning no matter what it is, or if we retire, we all still are striving toward something, probably most of us are.

It is very important not to think about losing.

There were a lot of people shouting out. I know it's not proper tennis etiquette, but this is the first time I've ever played here that the crowd has been behind me like that. Today I felt American, you know, for the first time at the U.S. Open. So I've waited my whole career to have this moment and here it is. ... It was great. It was awesome. It was like winning gold.

It's amazing when tragedy strikes, how strong you find that you are, and I'd seen other people go through horrible things. And I just thought, "Wow, I would be a complete mess," and then suddenly when it happens, you realize you had more strength than you knew and it helps you to get through.

It's easy to stand back, but to move forward and take a chance, that takes a little more guts, a little more courage.