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" Tennis was a white, upper-class sport, and I wanted it to be treated like other sports were. "
John McEnroe
Sports
White
Were
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" The greatest compliment I ever got was when people called me an artist, and I understand that solo aspect of being an artist, when you're in there by yourself, trying to do something great, and people who don't even know you can come up and just dump on you. "
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" Of course for your main rivals, you're going to get extra motivated for it, particularly if you haven't played him for a long time. "
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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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" There's something deeply satisfying when it succeeds, but I'm not going to do another book just to put my name on something and make some money if it's not something I deeply care about. "
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" I remember when I was younger taking more pride in Wimbledon than the French. That and the U.S. Open - they were the ones I wanted to win. "
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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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" I am someone who gets pretty worked up. "
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" What is the single most important quality in a tennis champion? I would have to say desire, staying in there and winning matches when you are not playing that well. "
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Desire
Champion
You
" You look at a guy like Michael Jordan: I can't believe there will be other basketball players like him. "
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Basketball
Believe
Guy
" As I got older and started moving up the ranking, the matches got more important, and my emotions ratcheted up. I guess I hid my real feelings behind the anger. "
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Feelings
Real
Anger
" 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
" If you really want to get it more exciting, no linesmen. And have the players call their lines. That would make the game more exciting, I promise you. It would be awesome. "
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Want
You
Awesome
" My best tennis at my peak was when I played a lot of matches. "
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Best
Played
Peak
" Sometimes you get hungrier when you taste it. "
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Sometimes
Hungrier
Get
" I think the players, I put in the book for example that we should go back to wood rackets, probably they laughed at me, I'm a dinosaur, but I think that you see these great players, have even more variety and you see more strategy, there'd be more subtlety. "
John McEnroe
Great
You
Think
" The perception is I didn't get along with umpires, obviously, and I didn't, on the court. But off the court, we had a good vibe. "
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Good
Get
Perception
" One of the things I respected about Connors was that one second he would be spewing a four-letter word, the next second he would do something that had people falling off the aisles. Yet he never seemed to lose his concentration. "
John McEnroe
Off
Lose
Word
" 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. "
John McEnroe
Loser
Too Much
Cry
" With commentating, I've had a chance to show the humorous side of my personality that I didn't use on the court. It's fun, and I don't take myself too seriously. I have good broadcast teams with me, but I'm not a huge stats guy. I think they post the numbers too quickly, and I'd rather let the match play out a bit first. "
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Fun
Personality
Myself
" 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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Event
Behavior
Got
" I happened to be one of those guys who doesn't play much golf. "
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Who
Golf
Guys
" I can tell you from experience that when you get that pent-up and crazed, it can be distracting. "
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Experience
Get
I Can
" Nadal is one of the great champions - a class act. "
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Class
Act
Champions
" I'm a tell-it-like-it-is kind of person; I don't like being misled or someone not telling the truth. That upsets me. "
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" Nick Kyrgios, if you don't want to be a professional tennis player, do something else. "
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Tennis
" If you look at the top 100 players, you would see that the great majority of them have had at least a couple of surgeries. That tells me that we have to protect the players. "
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Great
Look
You
" I've never seen a good tennis movie. They all were terrible. "
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Seen
Never
Tennis
" I think it's the mark of a great player to be confident in tough situations. "
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Great
Tough
Confident
" I always got along with Borg, who was my greatest rival. People like to see me and Connors, me and Lendl, go at it. We didn't like each other. "
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See
Always
Go
" I'll let the racket do the talking. "
John McEnroe
Talking
Racket
Sports