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" I'd love to see all the guys play their best because I think it's better for tennis. "
John McEnroe
Best
Think
See
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" When I was eight and a half, my parents moved to a part of Queens where there was a club nearby. We joined, and if you believe in someone up above, I think I was meant to play tennis. "
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" Believe it or not, I was a pretty shy youngster growing up. "
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" You look at a guy like Michael Jordan: I can't believe there will be other basketball players like him. "
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" I happened to be one of those guys who doesn't play much golf. "
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" I can tell you from experience that when you get that pent-up and crazed, it can be distracting. "
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" I'd like to be the commissioner of tennis, but do I want to get into politics? Sometimes I have delusions of grandeur that that would be an interesting, good thing. I'm talking about actual politics, like being a congressman, but then I see how unbelievably nasty it really is, and maybe I'm not quite knowledgeable enough to actually do it. "
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" Roland Garros is the only one of the four majors that is 15 days, and that is too long. "
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" I'd like to think I could have and should have won more, but that's not the point. And I was at the point where I was playing great tennis in the mid 80s - the type of tennis people hadn't seen before - and I was very proud of that. "
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" Nadal is one of the great champions - a class act. "
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Class
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Champions
" If Roger stopped right now and never won another match, to me he'd already be one of the greatest players to ever play the game. To me, he's the greatest all around talent that I've ever seen. "
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" I got a lot of publicity, but it steamrolled. Event organizers weren't used to that kind of behavior, so later, they tightened the rules. "
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Behavior
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" I was a different kind of player as a kid and didn't do too much shouting and screaming. If things didn't go my way, I tended to get a bit overwhelmed. All I wanted to do was cry on my mom's shoulder. I didn't know how to handle defeat in front of a crowd, and I didn't want to be the loser. "
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Too Much
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" If you're out there and things are going badly, are you going to cry or break down? "
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Break
Going
" I'm 56 years old. I like to get out on the court. I continue to try to play the best I can. Obviously, I'm nowhere near where I was when half this age. But I can still hit a pretty decent ball. "
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" The older I get, the better I used to be. "
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Better
Used
Older
" I used to get two racquets a year. As you can imagine, they didn't last me too long. "
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" Well I think that's probably one of a few, where I grew up in the City of New York, it's got a lot of energy, my parents are Irish-American so there was a bit of yelling going on in my house but it seemed normal. "
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City
Think
New York
" Things slow down, the ball seems a lot bigger and you feel like you have more time. Everything computes - you have options, but you always take the right one. "
John McEnroe
Feel
Slow
Time
" I just remember watching Federer the first year he won Wimbledon. He was struggling with his back problem. I remember it vividly. It looked like there was a chance he was not going to finish. He had that look in his eye. Then, somehow, he found the wherewithal to dig a little deeper, and suddenly he wins the thing, and he's a different player. "
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Eye
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" I like to be close to water and the ocean, particularly. I love to get out and body surf. I like mountain biking, too. "
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Mountain
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Like
" We should reach out to people to try to go after the fans the way other sports do. Because we can't just depend on the fact that it is a great game. "
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" I am finicky about making sure my sneakers are pretty tight. It is almost like a superstition for me. "
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" Why don't they go back to wood racquets? Then we would see the best tennis to be played. "
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Best
See
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" What I've realised is that you can run miles, jump on a bike, lift weights, and all that other garbage, but the bottom line is that you get in tennis shape by playing tennis. You build the right muscles, and I don't believe people can do it as successfully any other way. "
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" It's one thing if you live in London and you're rooting for Chelsea or you're in New York and you love the Giants or Jets and no matter who's on the team you're into it. It's different in tennis; you're sort of your own guy, so you have to reach out and grab a person in a different way. "
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" I did a terrible job of composing myself. I was a spoiled brat from Long Island who benefitted from the energy of New York. "
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Long
New York
New
" I can't speak for other people, but I still hate losing. When I did lose, I found it easier to yell than to cry. Guys aren't supposed to cry, are they? "
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Cry
Hate
Lose
" When I felt I was rejected by my first wife, and she said, 'Some day you will thank me for this,' you know what? I do. And so, sometimes it is darkest before the dawn. You can think it is bleak and you can't see. You never know. "
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" To be involved in a senior tournament back in the States is very satisfying. "
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" I won't admit to having a poster of Borg on my bedroom door. But I certainly found him to be someone who got me way more into tennis. "
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