Looking for some inspiring tennis quotes to get your tennis team fired up for a match?
Our collection of tennis sayings will inspire, motivate and entertain. Enjoy.
Best Tennis Quotes
1.) Life is like a game of tennis; the player who serves well seldom loses.
Unknown
2.) To err is human. To blame someone else is doubles.
Unknown
3.) You only live once, but you get to serve twice.
Unknown
4.) Love is nothing in tennis, but in life, it’s everything.
Unknown
5.) If you don’t practice, you don’t deserve to win.
Andre Agassi
6.) Every good tennis player has to have a short memory. Good or bad.
Alexander Zverev
7.) Nothing can substitute for just plain hard work. I had to put in the time to get back. And it was a grind. It meant training and sweating every day. But I was completely committed to working out to prove to myself that I still could do it.
Andre Agassi
Roger Federer Tennis Quotes on the 2017 Australian Open
8.) Tennis is a tough sport – there are no draws. But if there was one, I would have been happy to accept a draw with Rafa tonight, really.
(Upon winning the 2017 Australian Open)
9.) I would have said a great event would be quarters… The fourth round would be nice.
10.) I hope to see you next year. If not, this was a wonderful run here, and I can’t be more happy to have won here tonight.
Venus Williams Tennis Quotes
11.) Tennis is mostly mental. Of course, you must have a lot of physical skills, but you can’t play tennis well and not be a good thinker. You win or lose the match before you even go out there.
12.) The thing about tennis is if you stay off for two weeks or just for three days, you can lose your rhythm quickly. So it’s just a question of constant diligence and vigilance.
13.) My motto is: I’m alive, so that means I can do anything.
Steffi Graf Tennis Quotes
14.) I never look back; I look forward.
15.) I want to reach absolute perfection. And I think I can reach it.
16.) Sometimes I wish I could have been a bit more relaxed, but then I wouldn’t have been the same player.
17.) When you lose a couple of times, it makes you realize how difficult it is to win.
Rafael Nadal on the 2017 Australian Open
18.) He did not surprise me. He was playing aggressively, and I understand that in a match against me. I don’t think it would have been intelligent to try to get into too many long rallies from the baseline. I don’t think he would have won. He went for it, and it was the right thing for him to do.
19.) Being honest, in these kinds of matches, I won a lot of times against him. Today he beat me, and I just congratulated him.
20.) Losing is not my enemy; fear of losing is my enemy.
21.) It is only a tennis match. At the end, that’s life. There is much more important things.
You might like: Humble Heroes: Naomi Osaka and Rafael Nadal
Daniil Medvedev Quotations
22.) But you have to play, that’s the Olympics, you go for the medal. You are not here to cry about the heat.
23.) Talking about Rafa, it’s tough to find words; he’s one of the greatest champions in the history of our sport. He’s just a machine, a beast on the court.
24.) I want all of you to know when you sleep tonight, I won because of you.
25.) To finally lift the trophy this week is an amazing feeling.
Arthur Ashe Quotes on Tennis
26.) Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.
27.) Success is a journey, not a destination. The doing is often more important than the outcome.
28.) The ideal attitude is to be physically loose and mentally tight.
29.) True heroism is remarkably sober and very undramatic. It is not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost but the urge to serve others at whatever cost.
30.) From what we get, we can make a living; what we give, however, makes a life.
31.) If I were to say, “God, why me?” about the bad things, then I should have said, “God, why me?” about the good things that happened in my life.
32.) One important key to success is self-confidence. An important key to self-confidence is preparation.
Andre Agassi Insights
33.) I stop thinking and start feeling. My shots become a half-second quicker, and my decisions become the product of instinct rather than logic.
34.) Tennis uses the language of life. Advantage, service, fault, break, love – the basic elements of tennis are those of everyday existence because every match is a life in miniature.
35.) You’ll hear a lot of applause in your life, but none will mean more to you than that applause from your peers. I hope each of you hears that at the end.
36.) What makes something special is not just what you have to gain but what you feel there is to lose.
Novak Djokovic Quotes
37.) Joking around is part of my personality, just who I am.
38.) Tennis is a mental game. Everyone is fit; everyone hits great forehands and backhands.
39.) I stopped thinking too much about what could happen and relied on my physical and mental strength to play the right shots at the right time.
40.) Tennis is my life, obviously; I need to focus, and I need to win. But it’s not the only thing. I’m not going to play forever.
41.) I always try to have something that keeps my mind relaxed and keeps my mind a little bit off tennis.
42.) The winner is the one who believes in victory more.
43.) I want the same thing I’ve wanted since I was seven years old. I want to be number one.
44.) I think luck falls on not just the brave but also the ones who believe they belong there.
45.) When the last point is done, we are humans. Give your opponent a hug and say, ‘great fight,’ and that’s all.
46.) It gives me goosebumps and little butterflies in the stomach when I start thinking about the ‘golden slam.’
47.) Coaches are very important to players. They’re people that are mentors, people that are advising them, people that should be their friends, and somebody you can rely on the tour.
Famous Tennis Sayings
48.) Tennis: the most perfect combination of athleticism, artistry, power, style, and wit. A beautiful game, but one so remorselessly travestied by the passage of time.
Martin Amis
49.) I used to pretend that I was Tom attacking Jerry — who was drawn on the ball.
Monica Seles
50.) I am the best tennis player who cannot play tennis.
Ion Tiriac
51.) The mark of great sportsmen is not how good they are at their best but how good they are at their worst.
Martina Navratilova
52.) The fifth set is not about tennis; it’s about nerves.
Boris Becker
53.) What a polite game tennis is. The chief word in it seems to be “sorry,” and admiration of each other’s play crosses the net as frequently as the ball.
J.M. Barrie
54.) Tennis: a racquet sport in which two players compete to see who has the shortest temper, the worst memory, the poorest eyesight, and the slowest watch.
Unknown
55.) Everything comes at a cost. Just what are you willing to pay for it?
Serena Williams – More Serena Quotes and a look at her net worth
56.) Tennis belongs to the individualistic past – a hero, or at most a pair of friends or lovers, against the world.
Jacques Barzun
57.) When I was 40, my doctor advised me that a man in his 40s shouldn’t play tennis. I heeded his advice carefully and could hardly wait until I reached 50 to start again.
Hugo L. Black
58.) I don’t play in any tournaments to come second best.
Andy Murray
Good Tennis Quotes
59.) You only live once, but you get to serve twice.
Unknown
60.) You don’t have to hate your opponents to beat them.
Kim Clijsters
61.) The primary conception of tennis is to get the ball over the net and, at the same time to keep it within bounds of the court; failing this, within the borders of the neighborhood.
Elliot Chaze
62.) In tennis, the addict moves about a hard rectangle and seeks to ambush a fuzzy ball with a modified snow shoe.
Elliot Chaze
63.) I hate to lose more than I love to win.
Jimmy Connors
64.) Experience is a great advantage. The problem is that when you get the experience, you’re too damned old to do anything about it.
Jimmy Connors
65.) As a tennis player, you have to get used to losing every week. Unless you win the tournament, you always go home as a loser. But you have to take the positive out of a defeat and go back to work. Improve to fail better.
Stanislas Wawrinka
Tennis Anyone?
66.) I didn’t have the same fitness or ability as the other girls, so I had to beat them with my mind.
Martina Hingis
67.) What rivalry? I win all the matches.
Martina Hingis
68.) Tennis is not a gentle game. Psychologically, it is vicious. That people are only just beginning to come to terms with this fact illustrates just how big a con trick has been perpetrated on the non-playing tennis public – and even a few players, usually losing players – for decades.
Richard Evans
69.) I told myself to play free. You play the ball. You don’t play the opponent. Be free in your head. Be free in your shots. Go for it. The brave will be rewarded here.
Roger Federer
70.) You have to believe in the long-term plan you have, but you need the short-term goals to motivate and inspire you.
Roger Federer
You might like Roger Federer – A class act on and off the court.
Funny Tennis Quotes
Here are some tennis quotes with a twist of humor.
71.) Nobody beats Vitas Gerulaitis 17 times in a row.
Vitas Gerulaitis, on finally beating Jimmy Connors after losing 16 straight
72.) The depressing thing about tennis is that no matter how good I get, I’ll never be as good as a wall.
Mitch Hedberg
73.) Why has slamming a ball with a racquet become so obsessive a pleasure for so many of us? It seems clear to me that a primary attraction of the sport is the opportunity it gives to release aggression physically without being arrested for felonious assault.
Nat Hentoff
74.) Tennis and golf are best played, not watched.
Roger Kahn
75.) A perfect combination of violent action taking place in an atmosphere of total tranquility.
Billie Jean King
76.) Champions keep playing until they get it right.
Billie Jean King
Amusing Tennis Sayings
77.) An otherwise happily married couple may turn a mixed doubles game into a scene from Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf.
Rod Laver
78.) I just hated to lose.
Bjorn Borg
79.) If I don’t practice the way I should, then I won’t play the way that I know I can.
Ivan Lendl
80.) The next point — that’s all you must think about.
Rod Laver
81.) Tennis is an addiction that, once it has truly hooked, a man will not let him go.
Russell Lynes
82.) Basically, I started playing double-handed on both my forehand and backhand side because my first racket was so very heavy.
Bjorn Borg
83.) What is the single most important quality of a tennis champion? I would have to say desire, staying in there, and winning matches when you are not playing that well.
John McEnroe
84.) I’ll let the racket do the talking.
John McEnroe
Tennis Takes
85.) The moment of victory is much too short to live for that and nothing else.
Martina Navratilova
86.) Spectacular performances are preceded by spectacular preparation.
Frank Giampaolo
87.) Whoever said, ‘It’s not whether you win or lose that counts,’ probably lost.
Martina Navratilova
88.) I have always considered tennis as a combat in an arena between two gladiators who have their racquets and their courage as their weapons.
Yannick Noah
89.) It’s one-on-one out there, man. There ain’t no hiding. I can’t pass the ball.
Pete Sampras
90.) Golfers are forever working on mechanics. My tennis swing hasn’t changed in 10 years.
Pete Sampras
91.) Writing free verse is like playing tennis with the net down.
Robert Frost
92.) Pressure makes me produce. Kills most guys. Mortifies ’em.
Bobby Riggs
Wimbledon Quotes
These tennis quotes focus on the Mecca of tennis: Wimbeldon.
92.) Being able to go into Wimbledon and be part of an amazing atmosphere is special.
Kate Middleton
93.) To its great credit, Wimbledon has been a leader in bringing about change and improvement in the sport.
Fred Perry
94.) Every time I hit the ball, I would pretend I was on that magical court at Wimbledon. And then, every time I went to sleep at night, I would dream about playing at Wimbledon one day.
Evonne Goolagong Cawley
95.) I got to play in a crowd, play in the Wimbledon Finals, and be the guy on a Davis Cup team for a while. Those are opportunities not a lot of people get.
Andy Roddick
Inspirational Tennis Quotes
96.) The cunning competitor plays on the other party’s guilt. Continuously praise your opponent’s shots, and you’ll notice how he begins to press. Self-beratement also serves to balance a guilty conscience for being successful and makes your opponent disturbed for upsetting you so. If, on occasion, you call one of your opponent’s “out” shots “in,” then, later on, you can innocently call an “in” shot “out” on a crucial play. Practice saying “Good try” sincerely; then you can call a lot of close shots “out” and get away with it.
Theodor Saretsky
97.) Speed in tennis is a strange mixture of intuition, guesswork, footwork, and hair-trigger reflexes. Many of the players famed for quickness on the court would finish dead last in a field of schoolgirls in a race over any distance more than ten yards.
Eugene Scott
98.) It’s difficult for most people to imagine the creative process in tennis. Seemingly it’s just an athletic matter of hitting the ball consistently well within the boundaries of the court. That analysis is just as specious as thinking that the difficulty in portraying King Lear on stage is learning all the lines.
Virginia Wade
99.) Some people say I have attitude — maybe I do — but I think you have to. You have to believe in yourself when no one else does – that makes you a winner right there.
Venus Williams
100.) Though your game is hardly the best, You can fray your opponent’s nerves, By methodically bouncing the ball, At least ten times before your serves.
Arnold J. Zarett
John McEnroe Quotes
101.) As they say in sports, the older you get, the better you used to be.
102.) The important thing is to learn a lesson every time you lose.
103.) 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.
104.) We all choke. Winners know how to handle choking better than losers.
105.) 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.
106.) The important thing is to learn a lesson every time you lose. Life is a learning process, and you have to try to learn what’s best for you. Let me tell you, life is not fun when you’re banging your head against a brick wall all the time.
107.) My greatest strength is that I have no weaknesses.
108.) Equipment’s the biggest change. And the guys have been getting bigger, stronger, more athletic – so the game has become more of a track meet instead of a tennis match, in a sense.
109.) Everybody loves success, but they hate successful people.
110.) You cannot be serious!
Serena Williams Quotes
111.) ;I am lucky that whatever fear I have inside me, my desire to win is always stronger.
112.) The success of every woman should be the inspiration to another. We should raise each other up. Make sure you’re very courageous: be strong, be extremely kind, and above all, be humble.
113.) You have to believe in yourself when no one else does.
114.) With a defeat, when you lose, you get up, you make it better, and you try again. That’s what I do in life; when I get down when I get sick, I don’t want to just stop. I keep going, and I try to do more. Everyone always says never give up, but you really have to take that to heart and really do never definitely give up. Keep trying.
115.) Growing up, I wasn’t the richest, but I had a rich family in spirit. Standing here with 19 championships is something I never thought would happen. I went on a court just with a ball and a racket and with a hope.
116.) ;I think in life, you should work on yourself until the day you die.
117.) I really think a champion is defined not by their wins but by how they can recover when they fall.
Chris Evert Quotations
118.) If I win seven tournaments in a row, I get so confident I’m in a cloud. A loss gets me eager again.
119.) Losing hurts me.
120.) I think team sports probably teach you more about giving – about being unselfish and being flexible.
121.) You can’t give up! If you give up, you’re like everybody else.
122.) You’ve got to take the initiative and play your game. In a decisive set, confidence is the difference.
123.) To be a tennis champion, you have to be inflexible. You have to be stubborn.
124.) Every time, all the time, I’m a perfectionist. I feel I should never lose.
125.) Ninety percent of my game is mental. It’s my concentration that has gotten me this far.
126.) 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 for the rest of your life, and there’s going to be a life after tennis that’s a lot longer than your tennis life.
Notable Tennis Sayings
127.) I fear no one but respect everyone.
Roger Federer
128.) Good shot, bad luck, and hell are the five basic words to be used in a game of tennis, though these, of course, can be slightly amplified.
Virginia Graham
129.) Tennis is a mental game. Everyone is fit; everyone hits great forehands and backhands.
Novak Djokovic
130.) I think luck falls on not just the brave but also the ones who believe they belong there.
Novak Djokovic – Learn all you need to know about Novak Djokovic
Carlos Alcaraz Tennis Quotes
131.) I don’t have any limits; I don’t want to set any.
132.) If you work hard, all the hard work, it pays off.
133.) If you win it or you lose it, after the point, you have the chance to think about it in a positive way.
134.) Your biggest rival is yourself. It’s not only for me, it’s for everyone. You have to control yourself… your emotions first, then playing against the opponent.
135.) You have to be focused all the time. Even in the tough moments, you have to be focused and positive.
136.) You forget the pain. You forget the fatigue, and you push through.
137.) Nobody gifts you anything, I believe. You don’t just click your fingers and have the world at your feet. You have to work at things.
138.) My dream is to be among the best in history, to try to get close to them somehow. I know it’s very complicated – maybe even impossible – will be. But in this world, you have to think big and dream big. Ultimately, that’s my dream today.
139.) At the end of the day, I’m playing tennis, a sport I love. If you’re not enjoying yourself on court, you’re lost.
140.) I am clear about my goal; I am clear about my dream, which is to be number one in the world.
Coco Gauff Quotes
Learn more about Coco Gauff at UTA Tennis.
141.) It’s nice to be important, but it’s more important to be nice.
142.) Never let anyone dim your light.
143.) We live, we learn, but most importantly, we keep trying.
144.) It’s important that you don’t put yourself into a box. So I always try to tell young kids that to dream big, and you never know when your moment is going to happen.
145.) Tennis means hard work, determination, and sacrifice.
146.) I have trust in both my training and preparation, and always believe in myself and know that I can win.
147.) It’s important for us to know that our worth isn’t defined by how well we do in our sport.
148.) You need to use your voice. No matter how big or small your platform is, you need to use your voice.
149.) When I leave this world, I don’t want to be remembered as just being good at tennis. I want to be remembered as a good person and a good advocate.
150.) I don’t think I’m going to change the world. I’m not delusional, but I think it could change some people in the world.
These tennis expressions are great for Instagram and Facebook captions. Send us your favorite tennis quotes, and we may add them to our collection. Shoot us an email with the subject heading “tennis quotes.” Thanks.
By Mike O’Halloran
Mike is the founder and editor of Sports Feel Good Stories.
Encore
You are on our Best Tennis Quotes page.
Check out our Tennis Slogans — Great for apparel, Facebook headlines, Instagram captions, a rallying cry, a banquet program, and more.
You might like: