105 quotes found
"Nowadays everyone can play: some may have less talent but more physical preparation. And this can bring results in the long run. Injury prevention is also a key aspect."
"I like working out a lot, especially during winter training. I also like to work with weights, which we tennis players don't do very much. Instead I struggle a bit with aerobic work and running, but it's very important: endurance is very important."
"I don't have a diet, I've never been someone who eats badly or likes unsporting things. With my fitness trainer we're looking after this part a little bit, but not too specifically. I try to vary a lot and eat things that make me feel good. Clearly, before the match it wouldn't make sense to gain weight."
"I'm lucky that my game adapts to all surfaces, I've never struggled too much. There's no need to upset my tennis, there are some adjustments to be seen on the court."
"I like basketball a lot. My favourite player is LeBron James, so I have to admit that I've changed teams to support based on his movements: I've supported Miami, Cleveland and now the Lakers... And then there's Federer."
"I like to be identified as a tennis aesthete, because I, Lorenzo, as a person before being a tennis player, like to look for beauty in all things, even off the court. [...] Of course, elegance does not always correspond to effectiveness and sometimes I would prefer to be less beautiful but more effective."
"My father put a racket in my hand almost for fun, as a joke, and it was immediately apparent how easy it was to hit the ball."
"I believe I am part of a generation of very strong and very promising youngsters who are reviving a passion for tennis in Italy, which was perhaps dying out a bit. You can see that spectators are getting more and more involved, we also see it during tournaments in Italy, where there is always a lot of cheering. There are many very strong tennis players, and I would say that this group can dream of bringing the Davis Cup to Italy."
"Getting to these levels talent alone without all the daily work is not enough, maybe in other sports you can compensate, but here {{NDR|in tennis} a combo of talent and training is indispensable."
"In the past being so multitasking, complete and being able to do a bit of everything was also a problem, now I can slowly simplify the strategy and schematise a bit more. But it is always a balance of pros and cons: on the one hand there are the difficulties in selection, on the other hand if you can do a bit of everything you gain in unpredictability."
"I wish everyone had my parents like I had them because they always allowed me to choose even when I was young I decided. They never put pressure on me even when I played other sports."
"It is wonderful for us tennis players to have a Pope who follows us and has played."
"Sinner: The ball, there it is. If you want to play a little. Pope Leo XIV: But we'll break something here! We'd better not. Pope Leo XIV: I saw that you won last night.... How do you see Rome? Sinner: Now we are in the game. At the beginning of the tournament it was a bit difficult, now with three games we have picked up some rhythm. Pope Leo XIV: Courage."
"(Pope Leo XIV to Sinner) In this dress at Wimbledon they would let me play...."
"The Italians are passionate and emotional like me, while Jannik is serious and compassionate. Becoming No 1 with you is a potentially disruptive role, [...]. With what generosity will Sinner be willing to give himself to a starving country? He repeats that he is only focused on improvement. I am curious to find out. [...] A position [number one] not easy to hold, indeed. The eyes always on you, the pressure, everyone pulling you by the jacket. Where does Sinner usually rest in Italy? Does he know he has to go around escorted? He's a quiet and reserved guy, who likes to travel under the radar: he's going to bump into Italian enthusiasm. I wish him fun in the leadership role, to give himself some room to manoeuvre, otherwise the number one risks crushing him."
"I read things about Sinner that predict a great future for him. I hope the things I read will come true, like those of Nicola Pietrangeli and Davis. I am now in my nineties, and Sinner's remains among the best days I have had."
"It doesn't worry me, it stimulates me. And it gives me strength. With Jannik there is a good relationship and a healthy rivalry, which will be good for both of us."
"I admire him. Somehow I see myself in him: he thinks about work and performance more than about appearing as a character outside sport."
"Djokovic has a lot in his arsenal, he can play both attack and defence. Sinner is one-dimensional. He is stupidly designed to hit. He is a modified version of the same Hrbaty and Johansson. More modernised."
"(About “the inability to control emotions, expectations, and tension on the court”) It's my job, and when I'm on the court, I want to do my best, and many times I don't understand that in certain situations I have to play with what I have. If tomorrow I have five, I have to play with five and I can't expect seven. This is what has always cost me throughout my career. It has taken me to a high level, but not as high as I could have gone. It's my limit. [...] Many people say, “You have to learn from Rafa [Nadal], you have to learn from Roger [Federer],” but how can you do that? There's only one Rafa, and there's only one Roger."
"I have to be honest, I don't like the future that lies ahead for this sport [tennis]. Maybe it's because I'm part of an older generation, but now all you see are kids hitting “bombs” with their serves and forehands. I don't enjoy it. When I stop playing, I won't watch it on television and I won't buy a ticket to see a show like that. I don't think it's worth it."
"Interviewer: “Fabio, how many times?” Fognini: How many times what? Interviewer: “How many times have you smashed your racket on the ground?” Fognini: Never enough."
"When I lose my temper, my mouth starts moving on its own [...]"
"[...] when I hang up my racket, I'll be able to say that I was Fabio Fognini in every sense of the word. Mistakes are part of growing up: I don't brag about them, I'm not proud of them. And when I've made mistakes, I've always paid the price. I've never had any breaks in my life."
"Interviwer: “To win, do you have to be selfish?” Fognini: Yes, but only for a limited time. Let me explain: when I play against you, we're not friends, but if we want to go for a beer afterwards, I'm in. What happens on the court stays on the court. That's why after every fine or setback, I've always bounced back."
"I don't even know why certain things happen to me. [...] It's as if Fabio sometimes ceases to exist on the court and is suddenly replaced by another guy who is totally out of control. An enemy that I carry inside me and that I sometimes can't hold back."
"Interviewer: “Fognini would have won much more with a different mindset [...]: truth or stereotype?” Fognini: I've been hearing this my whole life, and I'm tired of it. I'm fine with the way things are: I've made it into the top 10 in the rankings while staying true to myself. Becoming what others want me to be would make me unhappy."
"Interviewer: “No regrets about not becoming a soccer player, perhaps for Inter, as your father dreamed?” Fognini: The Dellacasa family lived near our house in Arma: he was Inter's official masseur and a customer at my dad's hardware store. My dad is also a good friend of Altobelli's, so much so that in 1982 he invited him to follow the national team to Spain for the World Cup. All my childhood idols are soccer players: Materazzi the rebel, Zamorano the warrior. My father and I used to go to Pinetina to watch the training sessions. But when I was 13 and faced with a crossroads, I didn't hesitate: in tennis, you're on your own, the credit is yours, the blame is yours. There are no excuses. That's how it works."
"Whether you like it or not, we're all a bit like Fognini. Get used to it."
"I also slide on concrete, and all this sliding and starting again, sliding and starting again, the support... my joints suffer. I've always been someone who has to be in a certain physical condition when I'm on the court. I'm not six feet tall, I can't go out on the court not at my best and get by with my serve and power. Being in good physical shape is essential for me [...]"
"I've always said this, even if it may sound bad: I hope my son doesn't play tennis. Because I know what I've done, the sacrifices my dad made... Not that I'm not willing to make them for my children, far from it, but at the same time it's hard, because if you want to try to excel in our sport, you have to put in a lot of dedication. Maybe it's an adjective that may seem strong: “hard” is waking up at 4 a.m. and going to work. Ours is a very beautiful life, but there are a thousand difficulties. Being alone, far from home and friends, traveling, fatigue, jet lag: there are so many moments that fans don't see. Those who are close to us, those who follow us, know how hard it is. And you have to get used to these things from an early age. [...] This is a hard life. At the same time, I know we are very lucky. In the end, I've made a career out of a sport, and being able to earn a living this way is not something everyone can do; it's a privilege."
"I'm aware that I can't please everyone. But the most important thing, as I've always said and will say again, is that when Fabio Fognini ends his career, he may have some regrets, yes, but he'll come out with his head held high. Because of the wonderful career he has had and because he has never changed. Interviewer: What do you mean? Fognini: I have always remained myself, regardless of results, popularity, news, and everything around me. And I am proud of that because I think it is important. I think you can be Valentino Rossi, the world's number one motorcyclist, or Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods... but if these things change you, you lose a bit of your humanity. It wouldn't be fair to name names, but I think many of my colleagues have changed with success, and that's a very sad thing."
"Years ago, for example, I wasn't ready to understand the fans. Interviewer: The audience at the Internazionali di Roma, for example? Fognini: Yes, and the audience in Rome is a special one, which Fabio Fognini at the time was probably not ready to welcome, to take on his shoulders and carry with him. I had a love-hate relationship with Rome, especially when I was young. I've always been someone who likes to play in big stadiums, with strong players, with fans. It's always excited me. The crowd in Rome is one of the best ever. The fans speak your language, they know you, they want the best from you... playing in Rome is priceless. On the other hand, though, all this can also work against you. They can kill you. You're so tense and want to do so well that you can struggle, and that's something that happened to me in the past. And I didn't understand why they didn't support me when I was in trouble, when I really needed it. This love-hate relationship went on for quite some time. Then, I think we understood each other and, above all, they understood me. At the same time, I probably also learned to accept that the public had expectations, almost demands, of me. I've always been very short-tempered, very passionate, and this came out especially when things were going badly. I would get frustrated, angry, break a racket, argue with someone... But there is no right or wrong, everyone has their own way of expressing themselves and suffering when they fail."
"Over the years, I have realized that in tennis, the psychological component is perhaps the most important. There is a huge amount of tension, and if you want to excel, the mind plays a big part and, above all, ‘the mind lies’, so you have to train it. As if it were a muscle, you have to find a way. In the past, few people trained their minds as they could have, but in my opinion it's important and today we work on it more. I have increasingly followed a certain type of mental training, if you can call it that, also because of the need to get out of certain situations. Interviewer: “Would you like to talk about it?” Fognini: I remember one year I was in Paris, and one night I woke up almost crying, next to Flavia [Pennetta]. I thought I was going to die. I was sweating, my heart was racing, I couldn't feel my left arm, I thought, “Help, I'm having a heart attack.” But no, it was a panic attack. The next day I went onto the court and didn't know what to do, I didn't know where to go, I couldn't breathe properly. These panic attacks have to be managed, you have to work on them, getting your mind used to them with exercises and being aware that things like this can happen. At first I was scared. But not as a tennis player [...], as a person. I thought: I don't want to be like this. Because it's not about suffering on the court, fighting, giving my best, running, winning matches: that's a kind of suffering I'm willing to endure. But off the court, I don't want to suffer like this."
"Adriano was born to play tennis. It's a shame it didn't last long because he would have been able to beat all my records."
"(About Roger Federer) Like Borg, he's very fair on the court, but that's to be expected: he's the best, he's a billionaire, and he knows there are people who are worse off. Others who don't behave in the same way should consider this and calm down."
"(About Roger Federer) It's hard to find faults with him, to give him a rating below ten. And I challenge anyone to do so. Like Borg, he invented a style, a way of playing."
"Padel allows everyone to have fun. Someone who plays padel badly undoubtedly has more fun than a poor tennis player, who never touches the ball and therefore ends up getting bored. Here the distances are shorter, everything is easier."
"But watching those kids cheering for Ho Chi Minh's China and Mao, and spitting on the American flag, I wondered: what do they know about China? And do they know what communism, which they like so much, is? I had been to Poland in 1956 and to Czechoslovakia the following year. I would have liked to take those students on a trip there to show them up close what they were peddling as the dictatorship of the proletariat."
"(Referring to Federico Luzzi) I didn't know him well, although I knew he was considered the hope of Italian tennis. As a player, he was very nervous, although this is a common trait among young people trying to make a name for themselves. What I don't understand is how a 28-year-old can die while many criminals walk around freely."
"Until I was 19, I played soccer better than tennis. I was in Lazio's youth team, I was a center forward and scored more than one goal per game. When the club decided to loan me out to Serie C, I gave up soccer: as a child I dreamed of being an explorer, I thought that with tennis I would travel more."
"(About Protests of 1968) I saw a generation, or at least a large part of a generation, lost behind certain snake charmers who pursued their goals without scruples. Even on the right, mind you. And many young people got caught up in it, risking their own lives and often those of others."
"Panatta earned in one year what it took me ten years to earn in my day."
"[In 1960, explaining his decision to turn professional] Until now, I have lived like a prince, and I am grateful to the Federation. But it is a fairy-tale world that would vanish at the first sign of my decline. So what prospects would I have left other than to become a coach and spend eleven hours a day under the sun teaching listless and distracted kids how to hit a ball?"
"[In 1960] I am convinced that amateur tennis is destined to disappear. In two or three years, Open Tennis will be a reality that even the Davis Cup will have to adapt to."
"What happened when it became known that the final would be against Chile? I immediately said that any decision not to play would be stupid and reckless, that politics could not stop sport and that thirty years later no one would remember Chile and Pinochet, but only the victory. And letting another team's name be on the Cup because we refused to go there was irresponsible."
"Today, all the credit goes to a phenomenal generation that made tennis a hugely popular sport throughout Italy. And some people wanted to prevent that. It's crazy."
"What was Pietrangeli's most important skill as captain? While playing, knowing how to open water bottles and hand out towels from the right side. Because that's all a captain has to do: if you have Leo Messi, there's no point in telling him how to play. Off the court, it's a little different: you have to know how to manage guys who at some point think they're God."
"In Pietrangeli, the human being always prevailed over the machine capable of playing perfectly."
"How many evenings we spent together, in the dark atmosphere of a nightclub, as the hours of the games drew nearer. The anxiety I felt, as a former player and friend, did not seem to affect Nicola in the slightest."
"If, in our day, they had confined us to an island for six months, without tennis courts, and then made us play a tournament, Nicola would have beaten us all."
"I'm a lucky guy: ranked 167th in the world with five Italians ahead of me, and they gave me the Davis Cup showcase!"
"I knew Federico from the age of 15. He was a player who entertained the crowd. Watching him fascinated me. I never met him on the circuit, but I will always remember him as a nice and funny guy."
"Federico not only won, he won beautifully. He was also a handsome boy, with a captivating face that was both sweet and mischievous, showered with female affection, not least from his mother Paola."
"Regardless of his tennis skills, which were perhaps not fully exploited, he was a likeable and brilliant young man, and his sudden death left his many friends in disbelief and dismay."
"The last time we had dinner together was in Los Angeles, where he was taking an acting course. “Fla, you don't know how many women,” he told me. And I teased him: “What on earth do they see in you...” Every now and then I look at the photo of Fede that I keep in my wallet: he was beautiful."
"I didn't know him well, although I knew he was considered the hope of Italian tennis. As a player, he was very nervous, but that's common among young people trying to make a name for themselves. What I don't understand is how a 28-year-old can die while many criminals walk around freely."
"Federico Luzzi was there to watch me play in the final against Safina last year, and now he's gone. It was as if he were there with me."
"He could be a phenomenon, someone like Xavier Malisse. He has the handicap of being Italian."
"Tennis was invented by the Devil."
"(About the 1976 Rome Internationals) I didn't dedicate that victory to my father, my mother, my wife, or my son. I dedicated it to myself, and that's it!"
"That Federer is unique can be seen in the way he hits the ball, his change of pace, and the technical and tactical solutions he decides to adopt. He hits the ball hard, but he always does it the right way. In a classic way, but at the same time modern."
"What a guy, Bjorn: capable of emptying two bottles of vodka, lying down until morning, and then playing as if nothing had happened."
"It was Ignazio Pirastu, then head of the PCI Sports Commission, who brought us the unexpected news: according to Enrico Berlinguer, we had to go to Chile. And he wanted us to know it. For the secretary of the PCI, it would not have been right for the Cup to end up in the hands of Pinochet's Chile rather than ours. From then on, the road to departure was downhill. It was like a free-for-all. The Andreotti government said it would leave the decision up to CONI, which in turn left it up to the Federation, and we found ourselves in Santiago, free to win. Thanks to Berlinguer."
"However, I believe that Arthur revolutionized international tennis: he was the first black player to win, marking a radical turning point. I have been told of some clubs where black players were not even allowed to enter, so Ashe was very important in this sense."
"Lendl was a very strong player, one of the strongest of his era, but he wasn't good at playing tennis. [...] He was almost unbeatable at his peak, but he had obvious technical limitations: at the net, for example, he couldn't hit a single shot right."
"Tennis is ageless, is that perhaps the conclusion? Yes, it must be so... And Federer is tennis, so he too is ageless. There is a difference, and it shows. Federer does exactly what needs to be done with a racket in his hand. Not only that, he does it so well that it all seems logical, even easy."
"(About Lea Pericoli) Once, in Paris, while I was watching her from the stands near the court, I felt like saying to her, “Come on Lea, enough with these lobs, go to the net for once.” She replied doubtfully, “I'll try, but it would be the first time.” She went for it, slipped, fell, got her foot tangled in the net, started laughing, and of course insulted me, as only she knew how to do. The whole thing, amid laughter, went on for days."
"I have always been left-wing, but I don't like fanaticism or ideological excesses. In the end, I understand that Enrico Berlinguer had changed his mind. In any case, I wanted to go and win. The Chilean crowd was extraordinary, the best I've ever encountered, but the atmosphere was very heavy, oppressive."
"At the Roland Garros in particular, I played the best tennis of my life, after saving a match point with a dive and outclassing Borg in the quarterfinals. Sixty seconds of total fulfillment, of happiness, at the end of the final with Harold Solomon and then that was it. That evening, at the gala dinner, I remember feeling very sad. A sense of emptiness. Almost depression, which lasted three weeks."
"Björn Borg and Guillermo Vilas ruined a generation of players. Today, there are no more attacking players capable of softening the ball. Andre Agassi was the evolution of this tennis. He invented a new way of playing, the first baseliner. Today you find brutes wielding the racket. Tennis is something else. I watch Federer. He plays too well. He's deluded, he wants to beat that beast Nadal by playing good tennis. Impossible."
"Borg was a paranormal phenomenon. I always said he was a “calm madman.” His madness was well disguised. He spent all day adjusting the tension of his racket strings. One day or another you'll crack, I told him, your brain will explode. It did explode one day, after losing to McEnroe at Wimbledon. He retired at 26, when he was still the strongest of them all. He was fed up. Björn was a very funny man. He never had a penny in his pocket. He used American Express, but credit cards didn't exist in Italy at the time."
"Ilie Năstase was the nicest of them all, a great guy. He and Ion Tiriac were an irresistible pair on and off the court."
"In tennis, there is doping, as in almost all sports. I don't believe in athletes who are victims, who take things without knowing it. Then they are not victims, they are idiots. The truth is that they always catch who they want to catch. The political power of a nation counts for a lot."
"I couldn't be the role model. Panatta was pure talent. It's easier to follow someone like Björn Borg, keeping a kid training against a wall for four or five hours a day. But to condemn yourself to that amount of work, you needed the mind of someone like Borg. Italians are different, they need to have fun. Take two kids, one Swedish and one Italian, and put them in front of a wall to hit balls: after fifteen minutes, the Italian is already bored, while after six hours, you have to stop the Swede."
"To organize a tournament, you need to know the city where it takes place well. Rome is a big “slut”; my Internazionali tournaments combined sport and socializing, tennis champions and the Roman upper class."
"If you get to play at a world-class level, you can't afford to be lazy. I've suffered from the clichés that see Romans as champions of indolence. Look at Francesco Totti: he worked like crazy to get back in shape for the World Cup, and everyone is amazed. It happened when, after three months of tournaments, I felt the need to take a break and devote myself to other things. Tennis has never been a monomania for me. Even when I was at my peak, I liked to read, I kept myself informed: those were the years of lead."
"I've always been a champion in my own way. Today, stardom is rampant. I wonder how someone who plays soccer or wields a racket can feel like a phenomenon. When I hear one of them speak in the third person, it pisses me off. They have bodyguards. Maria Sharapova thinks she's Greta Garbo. Apart from Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, who are two exceptional guys, the others are all very sad and very full of themselves."
"But if it is truly impossible to avoid making a choice or a ranking, then I would suggest abolishing all discussion about the number of wins, Slams, or the length of this or that tennis “reign,” and instead opening a folder and putting in it all the names of the innovators, those tennis players who were inevitably champions and who pushed tennis toward the future. They are the builders of our sport, and when discussing history or supremacy, we need to refer to them in order to better understand what came before and what came after. (p. 5)"
"(About Borg) A man of ice? Listen, only in appearance. On the court, however, he was a machine. With his bounce tennis, with those lobs that picked up speed when they hit the ground, he ended up giving a new dimension to the court. (p. 6)"
"McEnroe was an innovator for more subtle, yet important, and still relevant reasons. At a very particular moment in the growth of our sport, when there was a general tendency to turn it into a defensive game, among many uninspired imitators of Borg, he explained to everyone how attack was still an essential part of the game and set the tone for those who came after him, such as Becker and Stich, Stefan Edberg, and Patrick Rafter. John defined a concept of anticipation that was even greater than the current one: he anticipated not only his opponent's shots, but even their geometry. (p. 7)"
"Belarda was a real old fascist. [...] During our training camp in Formia, we watched political debates on TV. When Almirante spoke, he would ask for silence, “Everyone be quiet, I need to hear!”, and I would make noise. Then when Natta spoke, I would say, “Now I have to listen.” Or I would show up at the table with L'Unità. Then [...] with Il Manifesto. And Belarda would say, “What is this stuff? Put it away immediately!” And I would say, “What, can't we read the newspaper?”"
"Please, don't call it the Davis Cup anymore. We used to go and play in South Africa, Australia, India. The Davis Cup lasted all year and for us Europeans it was the most important thing, more than Wimbledon. [...] Now the Davis Cup lasts three days. Interviewer: What happened? Panatta: The more professional tennis became, the more money was earned in tournaments and with sponsors, the less players wanted to take on trips for the national team."
"(About Ilie Năstase) He called me Maccarone. He knew I was superstitious. We met in doubles at Roland Garros, me with Bertolucci, him with José-Luis Clerc, the Argentine. I was about to serve, I looked up, and I saw him with a black cat in his arms. Nastase had got himself a black cat and brought it onto the court. At Roland Garros."
"We had played an exhibition match in Buenos Aires and were supposed to play another one in Venezuela [...]. The plane broke down, we arrived in Caracas via Rio and Miami, we were exhausted. I proposed a deal to Ilie: there would be no prize money, everyone had already received their fee; we would play the first set for real; whoever won it would also win the second. He accepted, on one condition: “Don't hit me with drop shots, I don't feel like running.” First point. He served, on the line. I made a strange movement, and it came out as a winning drop shot. I heard Nastase roar: “Damn Maccarone!” We played to the death for three and a half hours, and I won 7-6 in the third set. Every time we changed sides, Nastase growled at me: “Maccarone, you hit me with a drop shot!”"
"Federer is tennis. I've seen him do things that I know can't be done, but he did them."
"(About Alcaraz) _He has higher peaks. Sinner is more consistent. A caterpillar: almost unbeatable. He has a game—I don't want to sound disrespectful—that is schematic, very basic, based on excellent fundamentals, better backhand than forehand. He moves very well for his height. He's very basic. The other one can do things you don't expect. Like the super tiebreak in Paris: after five and a half hours, a phenomenal thing. Now they're getting to know each other better. They'll become the new Federer and Nadal: they'll play many finals, sometimes one will win, sometimes the other."
"(About Iga Świątek) The simplicity with which she plays is impressive. In women's tennis, it's not so common to play against someone who does everything very well and always makes the right choice."
"[...] I started playing tennis at the age of 5 and fell in love with the sport. It was love at first sight. I feel great when I play. When I was younger, I used to watch the Grand Slam finals [...]. But it was hard to imagine that I could do it myself. Of course, I wanted to, but now it's something crazy for me."
"I dreamed of becoming a professional, but not of being number 1 or winning a Grand Slam. Never. Not even of entering the top 10 [...]. But I hoped for it, without really believing it. Then, step by step, step by step, I started to believe in myself without projecting myself too far ahead. That's why I was surprised to hear Nole's [Novak Đoković, ed.] interviews when he was a child, in which he said he wanted to become number 1 in the world and win Wimbledon. I watched them and it seemed incredible to me that children could dream like that. The same goes for Jannik [Sinner, ed.], who at 15 said his dream was to become number 1 in the world. I'm very happy, but I think I'm a different person."
"You get hurt, after the injury you can't find yourself again and a thousand doubts arise about your level, your ability to play well... uncertainty after uncertainty, your level drops. If you go on court without being calm, it becomes difficult."
"Interviewer: “Everyone says about you: ‘She has a great forehand but she's short’. What do you say to that? Jasmine Paolini: It's not a problem and I don't even think about it. I know what I need to improve, for example my serve, but for me, height isn't a huge disadvantage. Okay, if I were 5 centimeters taller, maybe I would serve a little better... but maybe I would be less agile. Like everything, it has its pros and cons."
"Interviewer: “During a match, have you ever thought that you would have won if you were 10 centimeters taller?” Jasmine Paolini: Never. The only question I ask myself is how I would serve if I were taller. That said, I can serve just as well. We're working on it, especially on transferring what I do in training to the match. During training, I serve pretty well. In a match, it's more difficult: I might miss a couple, I don't get the first one in, I get a couple of winning returns... and then I start to slow down and the insecurities creep in. But I'm happy with what I can do in training. We're working hard: the serve is too important in tennis today. In particular, I try not to slow down the speed of the shot."
"For a tennis player, technical changes are often traumatic, because it's not easy to change shots that you already consider good. We players are usually quite stubborn..."
"Interviewer: “What has been the most difficult moment in recent years?” Jasmine Paolini: Not qualifying for the Slams made me feel really bad. Finally, at Roland Garros in 2019, I got through the qualifying rounds [after nine failed attempts in various Majors, ed.] without losing a single set, and that broke the deadlock. Now I'm starting to win matches in the main draw, and it's a whole different story, but those years weren't easy. I arrived unconvinced, often without a coach, and I couldn't express myself at my best. In 2018 in Australia, I won three games in the first round of the qualifiers, and it was devastating."
"Interviewer: If you could give advice to Jasmine Paolini, who is entering the circuit at a very young age, what would you say to her? Jasmine Paolini: To have fewer doubts about myself. I think it's a very Italian flaw not to belittle yourself a little. Less doubt, more certainty."
"Interviewer: Life on the circuit can be exciting but also repetitive and tiring. How do you experience it? Jasmine Paolini: After years of playing mainly ITF, without hospitality and with very low prize money, I would describe life in WTA tournaments as peaceful. There is no anxiety about money, there are lots of points up for grabs, and everything is perfectly organized. Obviously, traveling all the time is not so easy, I have to learn to manage myself a little better: after New York, for example, I returned to Europe to play in Portoroz and then, without a break, I went back to the States to play in the Chicago tournament. I arrived exhausted and lost in the first round; looking back, I would opt for a different schedule or simply a week's rest. In summary: the professional circuit presents you with many challenges, sporting and otherwise, that are not easy to resolve; however, I consider myself privileged and never complain about this life."
"The more important matches I play, the more I understand this sport. There are no magic formulas. There is only hard work, perseverance, and determination."
"(Before the final of the 2012 Roland Garros) I'll have to serve a lot of first serves and move her around as much as I can. It's still a tennis match, so I'll try to play it and enjoy myself. Could the wind interfere with her high ball toss? Then let's hope for a hurricane!"
"Women have more spirit of sacrifice. In Italy, there is no culture of running, of suffering. Men think they can win with their shirt collars turned up, without breaking a sweat, with aces on serve and classy shots. Kids take to the court thinking about a cool guy like Roger Federer, not Rafael Nadal, who, having fewer natural weapons, sweats and fights. They should understand that, before becoming like that, Federer also worked his butt off."
"I like nice guys. Someone like Balotelli, for example, I can't stand him. I didn't like him at the European Championships and I really don't like him, his personality, his arrogant attitude. I can't stand him."
"No one is unbeatable, but I'd like to see Serena play in men's tournaments: she'd win a $10,000 tournament. She has an intensity and ability to play on the court that even men don't have. I've heard a lot of talk about the difference between men and women, but Serena's strength has to be proven on the court. I train with guys who are ranked 400-500 in the world, and I can assure you that she hits much harder."
"(About Nick Kyrgios) He has a strong personality, which I've always liked. Watching him play is a show, he does crazy things. My character shouldn't like him, but I've always found him interesting. Lately, however, he's made some rather ugly and unfortunate comments [...]. He seemed too eccentric to me, and I don't like that side of him very much. I preferred him when he limited himself to his antics on the court."
"She hits all her shots perfectly. Sara Errani has a great selection of shots. She processes the game very well inside her head."
"She plays really well inside her head. She has good technique, great technique. She has a grip that works well. Because even though she's short, she can still return a high ball. She's very confident right now. I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that. I think you'll see this more and more. Of course, taller players still have huge advantages. When you're not tall, you have to play even better and be faster. Justine Henin has already done it, and now Errani is in the final. It's incredible. It takes a lot of energy just to think that you can be competitive with players who are taller than you, and she's doing it."