When you start from nothing, when you come from nothing, it makes you hungry. I am proud of where I came from and I know what I want. I want to win.
When I walk through that gate to the court, that's my escape. I block out everything, good and bad.
I'm focused on going out every day and doing my best.
The more matches I play, the more confident I get.
It's pretty hard being a tennis player and Mother Theresa at the same time and that's just the way it is.
I help design my own tennis clothes.
I want my tennis to speak for everything.
When I'm down or maybe when it's close in the match, I feel like I'm still in it. I don't feel like I'm letting down. Mentally, I'm still really, really tough.
I always have a Sharpie, because usually when someone asks me for an autograph, they don't have a pen. I carry one in my purse, as well as in my tennis bag.
I'd love to open a tennis school for children in my hometown of Sochi.
Sometimes when you're putting the work in it just seems so, so hard, and you never know when that work's going to pay off.
My shoulder's not where I want it to be, but I'm doing a good job of monitoring it.
Tennis has never been the most important thing in my life. My family, my health, my happiness...they are more important to me. On court, I want to win. Off court, I want to be a better person. Tennis is a path to my future.
I'm not the next Kournikova-I want to win matches!
I spent a whole year when I was injured just trying to get my arm back to the point where I could hit a tennis ball for more than 30 minutes a day. I'd hit for 15 minutes and it would feel as if my arm was going to fall off.
To be honest, everything in my life outside of tennis is great. I'm doing amazing projects that, if I didn't have time off, I wouldn't be able to focus on.
I've been playing against older and stronger competition my whole life. It has made me a better tennis player and able to play against this kind of level despite their strength and experience.
Tennis has given me this wonderful life and I'm very grateful for it.
After being on the court for six hours, being on TV is very glamorous and fun for me. But tennis is always going to be my priority. It's not going to be this thing when all of a sudden TV will get in the way of that.
If I'm nervous, it means I had to work hard to get there, whether it's playing in a tournament or speaking at an event. So I try to stop and be proud of getting to live in that moment.
