Chris Evert Quotes

You've got to take the initiative and play your game. In a decisive set, confidence is the difference.

Whatever your goal in life, be proud of every day that you are able to work in that direction.

You can't give up! If you give up, you're like everybody else.

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. That quality is important because it stays with you the rest of your life, and there's going to be a life after tennis that's a lot longer than your tennis life.

A champion hates to lose even more than she loves to win.

Find something that you're really interested in doing in your life. Pursue it, set goals, and commit yourself to excellence. Do the best you can.

Ninety percent of my game is mental. It's my concentration that has gotten me this far.

If you're a champion, you have to have it in your heart.

I realized that with hard work, the world was your oyster. You could do anything you wanted to do.

I always looked ahead.

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.

Training the body to obey the mind as I have done differs from the more conventional method of getting the mind to obey the body.

To be a tennis champion, you have to be inflexible. You have to be stubborn. You have to be arrogant. You have to be selfish and self-absorbed. Kind of tunnel vision almost.

The difference is almost all mental. The top players just hate to lose. I think that's the difference. A champion hates to lose even more than she loves to win.

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.

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

You pay a price for everything in life.

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

There were times when deep down inside I wanted to win so badly I could actually will it to happen. I think most of my career has been based on desire.

I can definitely say the same thing [discussing Steffi Graf's claim that she had played against at least one top player who used steroids]. Steroids can really make a difference, physically and mentally. I'd be really disappointed if I had been ranked No. 2 behind someone who took steroids.

If I win several tournaments in a row, I get so confident I'm in a cloud. A loss gets me eager again.

After being at the top, I don't think I could play senior tournaments, because you know how good you were. I don't know if I would enjoy that, being half of what I was.

Losses are always a relief. They take a burden off me, make me feel more normal. If I win several tournaments in a row I get so confident I'm in a cloud. If I lose I go back to the dressing room and I'm no better nor worse than anyone else. A loss gets me eager again.

When I was younger, I was a robot. Wind her up and she plays tennis.