Boris Becker

Before, I wouldn’t have sacrificed anything for tennis but when I met Barbara it was different. I would have sacrificed tennis for Barbara.

I love the winning, I can take the losing, but most of all I Love to play.

I drew my strength from fear. Fear of losing. I don’t remember the games I won, only the games I lost.

The boys are so powerful off of the baseline now that they don’t have to come to the net to finish points. That’s the reason we went to the net. To finish the point. Nowadays, even the big guys can hit winners four feet behind the baseline.

An autobiography is not about pictures; it’s about the stories; it’s about honesty and as much truth as you can tell without coming too close to other people’s privacy.

The eyes of some of the fans at Davis Cup matches scare me. There’s no light in them. Fixed emotions. Blind worship. Horror. It makes me think of what happened to us long ago.

Tennis is beautiful when you can see tactics, when players don’t just react but are able to act and think.

I’m ambidextrous when I eat. But playing tennis right-handed – I can’t do it. I’m clueless.

Something that works for one person could be a disadvantage to another.

I love the crowds in Miami. I feel that is one of the tournaments where I get more support. That helps me a lot.

The only thing I had on my mind was tennis, and sometimes girls,… My life was all about tennis. My office was the whole world. The word home didn’t really exist.

Every year I go to Broadway to see a musical – I like the music. I saw ‘Mamma Mia;’ I saw ‘Les Miserables;’ I saw ‘Phantom of the Opera’ like six, seven times.

I’m really, really emotional.

[Roger Federer] We have a guy from Switzerland who is just playing the game in a way I haven’t seen anyone – and I mean anyone – play before. How fortunate we are to be able to see that. If he stays healthy and motivated – and the wonderful feel he has stays with him – he is the kind of guy who can overtake the greatest.

I go to the gym, I swim daily and from time to time I meet with friends and do extra-curricular stuff.

When one player is better than you, at this moment, the only thing you can do is work, try to find solutions and try to wait a little bit for your time. I’m going to wait and I’m going to try a sixth time. And if the sixth doesn’t happen, a seventh. It’s going to be like this. That’s the spirit of sport.

I think the tennis is only a game. You can lose. You can win. After that? In life, there are much more important things than tennis.

When you are thrown onto the stage at 17 in such an enormous way, it becomes living on the edge because every step you take, every word you speak, every action you do becomes headline news. And it became, for me, life or death.

You fight, you try your best, but if you lose, you don’t have to break five racquets and smash up the locker room. You can do those things, but when you’ve finished, nothing’s changed. You’ve still lost. If something positive came from that, I probably would do it. But I see only negativity.

Every little kid that steps on the court or the field has aspirations to go pro. I think being a pro basketball player is the best job. The thing I had to realize was that I can’t do every dream that I have.

I always work with a goal – and the goal is to improve as a player and a person. That, finally, is the most important thing of all.