Chris Evert famous quotes

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

#Confidence #Games #Play

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

#Heart #Tennis #Champion

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

#Inspiring #Giving Up #Giving

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.
-- Chris Evert

#Tennis #Training #Mind

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.
-- Chris Evert

#Selfish #Tunnels #Tennis

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

#Victory #Slumps #Firsts

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.
-- Chris Evert

#Hate #Athlete #Winning

Competitive toughness is an acquired skill and not an inherited gift.
-- Chris Evert

#Athlete #Skills #Toughness

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.
-- Chris Evert

#Life #Sports #Attitude

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.
-- Chris Evert

#Happiness #Winning #Tennis

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.
-- Chris Evert

#Happiness #Teacher #Selfish

... 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.
-- Chris Evert

#Senior #Thinking #Tennis

Losing hurts me. I was determined to be the best.
-- Chris Evert

#Hurt #Losing #Determined

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

#Determination #Hard Work #Oysters

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.
-- Chris Evert

#Girl #Athlete #People

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

#Ambition #Numbers #Satisfied

I always looked ahead.
-- Chris Evert

#Prophecy

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

#Ambitious #Feels #Ambitious Person

You pay a price for everything in life.
-- Chris Evert

#Pay

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.
-- Chris Evert

#Workout #Air #Breathing

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

#Controversial #Stills

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.
-- Chris Evert

#Thinking #Special #Stories

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.
-- Chris Evert

#Player #Self #Giving

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

#Missing #Age #Young

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

#Men #Talking #Feet

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.
-- Chris Evert

#People #Flying #Speech

Not every child is cut out for an individual sport.
-- Chris Evert

#Sports #Children #Cutting

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

#Perfection #Perfectionist #Should

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

#Sports #Team #Thinking

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

#Cat #Personality #Peaceful

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

#Sports #Loss #Winning

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.
-- Chris Evert

#Sports #Goal #Excellence

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.
-- Chris Evert

#Softball #Sports #Motivation

Ninety percent of my game is mental. It's my concentration that has gotten me this far. I won't even call a friend on the day of a match. I'm scared of disrupting my concentration. I don't allow any competition with tennis.
-- Chris Evert

#Wrestling #Games #Tennis

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.
-- Chris Evert

#Wrestling #Winning #Thinking

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

#Self Esteem #Personality #Fame

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

#Wind #Play #Tennis

You're always striving to play that perfect match.
-- Chris Evert

#Play #Perfect #Strive

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.
-- Chris Evert

#Player #Differences #Making A Difference

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

#Games #Focus #Ninety

If you can react the same way to winning and losing, that's a big accomplishment.
-- Chris Evert

#Winning #Accomplishment #Way

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

#Strong #Cookies #Wanted

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.
-- Chris Evert

#Loss #Play #Giving

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.
-- Chris Evert

#Tennis #Achievement #Clay

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

#Attitude #Hate #Winning