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.
Best Tennis Quotes: Advantage Us
Life is like a game of tennis; the player who serves well seldom loses.
Unknown
To err is human. To blame someone else is doubles.
Unknown
You only live once, but you get to serve twice.
Unknown
Love is nothing in tennis, but in life, it’s everything.
Unknown
If you don’t practice, you don’t deserve to win.
Andre Agassi
Every good tennis player has to have a short memory. Good or bad.
Alexander Zverev
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 on 2017 Australian Open
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.
Roger Federer (upon winning the 2017 Australian Open)
I would have said a great event would be quarters… The fourth round would be nice.
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.
See the Play Tennis Day page.
Venus Williams Quotes
Tennis is mostly mental. Of course, you must have a lot of physical skill 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.
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.
My motto is: I’m alive, so that means I can do anything.
Steffi Graf Quotes
I never look back, I look forward.
I want to reach absolute perfection. And I think I can reach it.
Sometimes I wish I could have been a bit more relaxed, but then I wouldn’t have been the same player.
When you lose a couple of times, it makes you realize how difficult it is to win.
Rafael Nadal on 2017 Australian Open
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.
Being honest, in these kinds of matches, I won a lot of times against him. Today he beat me, and I just congratulate him.
Losing is not my enemy, fear of losing is my enemy.
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
But you have to play, that’s the Olympics, you go for the medal. You are not here to cry about the heat.
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.
I want all of you to know when you sleep tonight, I won because of you.
To finally lift the trophy this week is an amazing feeling.
Arthur Ashe Quotes on Tennis
Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.
Success is a journey, not a destination. The doing is often more important than the outcome.
The ideal attitude is to be physically loose and mentally tight.
True heroism is remarkably sober, very undramatic. It is not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost but the urge to serve others at whatever cost.
From what we get, we can make a living; what we give, however, makes a life.
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.
One important key to success is self-confidence. An important key to self-confidence is preparation.
Andre Agassi Insights
I stop thinking, start feeling. My shots become a half-second quicker, my decisions become the product of instinct rather than logic.
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.
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.
What makes something special is not just what you have to gain, but what you feel there is to lose.
Famous Tennis Sayings
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
I used to pretend that I was Tom attacking Jerry — who was drawn on the ball.
Monica Seles
I am the best tennis player who cannot play tennis.
Ion Tiriac
The mark of great sportmen is not how good they are at their best, but how good they are at their worst.
Martina Navratilova
The fifth set is not about tennis, it’s about nerves.
Boris Becker
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
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
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
Tennis belongs to the individualistic past – a hero, or at most a pair of friends or lovers, against the world.
Jacques Barzun
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
I don’t play in any tournaments to come second best.
Andy Murray
Good Tennis Quotes
But that won’t give me a free hand to hold the beer.
Billy Carter, while being taught a two-handed backhand shot
You don’t have to hate your opponents to beat them.
Kim Clijsters
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
In tennis, the addict moves about a hard rectangle and seeks to ambush a fuzzy ball with a modified snow-shoe.
Elliot Chaze
I hate to lose more than I love to win.
Jimmy Connors
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
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?
I didn’t have the same fitness or ability as the other girls, so I had to beat them with my mind.
Martina Hingis
What rivalry? I win all the matches.
Martina Hingis
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
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
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.
Notable Tennis Sayings
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.
Chris Evert
I fear no one but respect everyone.
Roger Federer
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
Tennis is a mental game. Everyone is fit, everyone hits great forehands and backhands.
Novak Djokovic
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
Funny Tennis Quotes
Nobody beats Vitas Gerulaitis 17 times in a row.
Vitas Gerulaitis, on finally beating Jimmy Connors after losing 16 straight
The depressing thing about tennis is that no matter how good I get, I’ll never be as good as a wall.
Mitch Hedberg
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
Tennis and golf are best played, not watched.
Roger Kahn
A perfect combination of violent action taking place in an atmosphere of total tranquility.
Billie Jean King
Champions keep playing until they get it right.
Billie Jean King
Amusing Tennis Sayings
An otherwise happily married couple may turn a mixed doubles game into a scene from Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf.
Rod Laver
I just hated to lose.
Bjorn Borg
If I don’t practice the way I should, then I won’t play the way that I know I can.
Ivan Lendl
The next point — that’s all you must think about.
Rod Laver
Tennis is an addiction that once it has truly hooked, a man will not let him go.
Russell Lynes
Basically, I started playing double-handed on both my forehand and backhand side because my first racket was so very heavy.
Bjorn Bog
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
I’ll let the racket do the talking.
John McEnroe
Tennis Takes
The moment of victory is much too short to live for that and nothing else.
Martina Navratilova
Spectacular performances are preceded by spectacular preparation.
Frank Giampaolo
Whoever said, ‘It’s not whether you win or lose that counts,’ probably lost.
Martina Navratilova
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
It’s one-on-one out there, man. There ain’t no hiding. I can’t pass the ball.
Pete Sampras
Golfers are forever working on mechanics. My tennis swing hasn’t changed in 10 years.
Pete Sampras
Writing free verse is like playing tennis with the net down.
Robert Frost
Pressure makes me produce. Kills most guys. Mortifies ’em.
Bobby Riggs
Wimbledon Quotes
Being able to go into Wimbledon and be part of an amazing atmosphere is special.
Kate Middleton
To its great credit, Wimbledon has been a leader in bringing about change and improvement in the sport.
Fred Perry
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
I got to play in a crowd, play in Wimbledon finals, 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
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
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
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
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
Inspiring
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
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
Check out our Tennis Slogans — Great for apparel, Facebook headlines, Instagram captions, a rallying cry, a banquet program, and more.
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