Jana Novotna Quotes

• "I just wanted to play tennis. I started because I wanted to pick up another sport and then as I was slowly getting better I wanted to see how far I can go but I always wanted to be myself. I wanted to be original. I didn't want to copy anybody's style."
• "I started as a gymnast and did a little bit of that and different kinds of sports."
• "I started when I was 8 years old, which is obviously nowadays pretty late, but I guess in my generation it was all right. I had plenty of other interests and I didn't do only tennis."
• "I think it was the right time for me to retire because nowadays tennis is too incredibly fast and you can say that my style tennis went out of fashion."
• "I think no matter what you do you go through stages when you play. There was a number of times when I didn't do very well or was tired. It was too much to combine school and tennis altogether. Parents need to step in and say, take a little time off, do something fun."
• "I was maybe only 13 or 14 when I started to play junior tournaments."
• "I would like to see it go back to the wood racquets. To see the touch put back in tennis."
• "If we can make some kind of adjustments, maybe in the game, to make it interesting and slow down the surfaces, then it will be more fun and more interesting."
• "If you see someone that's little and plays the kind of style Amanda Coetzer plays, then it seems there is no room for players like that. You never know, it can change in five years again and maybe tennis will be slowed down again but I just don't see it nowadays."
• "In the Czech Republic, we had so many stars and so many good coaches and so many players and so many good people to look up to."
• "My parents influenced me the most. They never played tennis themselves but they were always there and determined, and at times when I wanted to do other stuff they were there to keep me focused and convince that me If I keep on working hard one day it would pay off and obviously it did."
• "Seems like most of the kids today are into other sports other than tennis."
• "The most important thing is they come here and compete and have fun and that's what matters in this time of their career."
• "We are nutheads. I don't think it's very rare. I think that a lot of players enjoying it. Even when we do have fun, we still are trying very hard and we are very serious in between the points."
• "When we don't laugh and when we don't have fun, we play very bad. So in order for us to play well, we need to enjoy it and have fun."
• "You know, there were some great shots. It was entertaining for all of the players and for the public. So why not to laugh occasionally?"