Chris Evert Quotations

To be a tennis champion, you have to be inflexible. You have to be stubborn. You have to be arrogant. You have to be selfish and self-absorbed. Kind of tunnel vision almost.

If you're a champion, you have to have it in your heart.

If I win seven tournaments in a row, I get so confident I'm in a cloud. A loss gets me eager again.

Relationships are give-and-take, and when you're a tennis player, you're certainly not giving. You have to be self-absorbed. It has to be about you.

I love hiking in the mountains in Aspen. Breathing the clean, fresh air is great. Plus, it gives me a cardiovascular workout and firms my legs.

Every time, all the time, I'm a perfectionist. I feel I should never lose.

You pay a price for everything in life.

You can't give up! If you give up, you're like everybody else.

You've got to take the initiative and play your game. In a decisive set, confidence is the difference.

Find something that you're really interested in doing in your life. Pursue it, set goals, and commit yourself to excellence. Do the best you can.

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 the rest of your life, and there's going to be a life after tennis that's a lot longer than your tennis life.

Not every child is cut out for an individual sport.

I think team sports probably teach you more about giving - about being unselfish and being flexible.

Being famous before you've formed your personality, before you have that self-esteem, is dangerous.

When you're a famous, successful person at 16 years old, the rules change for you. Everybody is doing things for you to make life easier so you can go out and play. And I think you miss out on lot of growing up and a lot of reality checks.

I'm not an overly ambitious person; I don't feel like I have to excel.

I'm not getting within 20 feet of a married man ever again - not even talking to one!

Tennis helped give me an identity and made me feel like somebody.

Losing hurts me. I was determined to be the best.

Ninety percent of my game is mental. It's my concentration that has gotten me this far.

When I was younger, I was a robot. Wind her up and she plays tennis.

I was very, very shy as a younger girl, just petrified of people.

I've had a lot of fear in my life, from fear of flying to fear of making a speech in front of a lot of people.

If you're a champion, you have to have it in your heart. You can have the greatest coaches in the world, all the opportunities to play, and the greatest equipment, but if you don't have it inside, you're not going to make it. On the other hand, if you don't have any of those luxuries but you have heart and courage and the guts to go out there and grind it out, then you'll make it.

I still have this image: I can't be controversial, I can't say things.

I was labeled at a young age - Miss Unemotional, Miss Cool, and that would carry over to my press conferences.

My first U.S. Open I think was just very special for me because that was sort of the beginning of what was a 'Cinderella' story for me.

Once you've been number one, you can never be satisfied with less.

The great high of winning Wimbledon lasts for about a week. You go down in the record book, but you don't have anything tangible to hold on to. But having a baby -- there isn't any comparison.

Now that I'm losing some, I can see how tough I was -- the killer instinct, the single-mindedness, playing like a machine. Boy, that's what made me a champion.

When I was in grade school and we had to write papers about what we wanted to be when we grew up, I wanted to be a social worker or a missionary or a teacher. Then I got involved with tennis, and everything was just me, me, me. I was totally selfish and thought about myself and nobody else, because if you let up for one minute, someone was going to come along and beat you. I really wouldn't let anyone or any slice of happiness enter.... I didn't like the characteristics that it took to become a champion.

You're always striving to play that perfect match.

I wanted always to appear strong and in control . . . .Then the cookie began to crumble.

There were times when deep down inside I wanted to win so badly I could actually will it to happen. I think most of my career has been based on desire.

I realized that with hard work, the world was your oyster. You could do anything you wanted to do.

A champion hates to lose even more than she loves to win.

I was very, very shy as a younger girl, just petrified of people. Tennis helped give me an identity and made me feel like somebody.

When I play, I'm boiling inside. I just try not to show it because it's a lack of composure, and if you give in to your emotions after one loss, you're liable to have three or four in a row.

Losses are always a relief. They take a burden off me, make me feel more normal. If I win several tournaments in a row I get so confident I'm in a cloud. If I lose I go back to the dressing room and I'm no better nor worse than anyone else. A loss gets me eager again.

... after being at the top, I don't think I could play senior tournaments, because you know how good you were. I don't know if I would enjoy that, being half of what I was.

In tennis, at the end of the day you're a winner or a loser. You know exactly where you stand.... I don't need that anymore. I don't need my happiness, my well-being, to be based on winning and losing.

I always looked ahead.

Cats are peaceful and tranquil - they bring calmness with their serene personalities.

Of all my achievements in tennis, I'm probably as proud of my record on clay courts as any of my Wimbledon, U.S. Open or French singles titles.

The difference is almost all mental. The top players just hate to lose. I think that's the difference. A champion hates to lose even more than she loves to win.

Single-mindedness. I hate to say it because I don't think it's the best thing for developing a person, but the single-mindedness - just concentrating in the one area - that's what it takes to be a champion.

Whatever your goal in life, be proud of every day that you are able to work in that direction.

Don’t let a first-set victory lead into a second-set slump

Competitive toughness is an acquired skill and not an inherited gift.

Training the body to obey the mind as I have done differs from the more conventional method of getting the mind to obey the body.

I can definitely say the same thing [discussing Steffi Graf's claim that she had played against at least one top player who used steroids]. Steroids can really make a difference, physically and mentally. I'd be really disappointed if I had been ranked No. 2 behind someone who took steroids.

If I win several tournaments in a row, I get so confident I'm in a cloud. A loss gets me eager again.

She's great for the game. She has that combination of glamour and hard work ethic, ... I think her motives are pure as far as, it means more to her to win tennis tournaments than to be on the cover of a magazine.

My first U.S. Open I think was just very special for me because that was sort of the beginning of what was a 'Cinderella' story for me.

For Monica (Seles) and I, this isn't work. It's our pleasure to help out. It's in our blood. This isn't work, it's more about responsibility, and it's a pleasure to do.

I think they will feel obligated to give back,

The fact that two of the grandest stages for women's sport, Wimbledon and Roland Garros, still do not treat women equal to the men is a black mark on the sport.

Without getting into it, just that I'm not as goody two-shoes as people think. I'm a normal woman. I've dated a lot of guys, I've had a few drinks, I've cursed, I've been rude to my parents.

Every time I played a pro from then on, I never felt intimidated or felt like there was such a big gap. I always felt like there's no pressure.

Even though there are a lot of bright tennis players out there, you still have to protect yourself and save all your mental and emotional energies for tennis.

Billie Jean and I have a very special relationship. We were perceived as different in the beginning, but now we laugh because we are very much alike. We're strong, we're stubborn. In a lot of ways free spirits, open-minded.

In America we're looking for future stars and we're coming up short a bit, ... There is so much now to choose from. In the '70s (when Evert was the No. 1 player) we didn't have women's basketball and soccer. A lot of our great athletes are going into other sports. But worldwide tennis has made a big jump.